Finalized Second Half Of The Essay

3.0 CASE ANALYSES: THE 2008 BEIJING OLYMPIC GAMES

3.1 China’s International Participation in Intellectual Property Protection As this essay mentioned in the section 2.1, nowadays we are facing the globalization of intellectual protection, and Olympic Games can be served as a good example to highlight the intellectual property protection on Global scale. And from the presentation of China’s Intellectual Property Laws system at section 2 mentioned China is already an active player at the worldwide intellectual protection campaign. To some extent, participations in international Intellectual Protection is a pledge to host the Olympic Games which is considered to be the most internationalized sports event.

China have joined almost all the major organizations of Intellectual Property Protection: the World Intellectual Property Organization; Berne Convention for Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (copyright); Universal Copyright Convention; Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property(patent and trade mark);Patent Cooperation Treaty; Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and Madrid Agreement for the International Registration of Trademarks.

The existing China Intellectual Property Protection Laws already provides a satisfactory level of protection to the distinctive Olympic elements. However, the Chinese authorities are keen to make more efforts to guarantee that all uses of Olympic property are under supervision in regard of the requirements by the Olympic Charter and the Host City Contract.

3.2 The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games-specific intellectual property protections

Ambush Marketing is “planned effort(campaign) by an organization to associate itself indirectly with an event in order to gain at least some of the recognition and benefits that is associated with being an official sponsor” 7 .The Chinese authorities seriously recognized the problem and developed laws and non-law enforcement methods to tackle Olympic ambush marketing. Firstly, let us examine the enormous efforts towards the legislation to protect the Olympic property.

The Protection of Olympic Intellectual Property Rights Provisions came into effect on 1 November 2001 to strengthen the protection of Olympic intellectual property and to support the development of Olympic Movement. The Provisions identify the rights of various Olympic intellectual rights owners like the IOC, COC (Chinese Olympic

7 7 : JK Schmitz, ‘Ambush Marketing: The Off-Field Competition at the Olympic Games’, Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property, vol. 3, no. 2, Spring 2005, pp. 203-208

Committee).The Provisions also identify acts which constitute infringement and any acts assisting such infringement. In Kenny K.S.Wong’s paper（2002）,he argues that “the Provisions seem to be based on the premise that all entities should safeguard Olympic-related intellectual property and they require advertisers, advertising agents and publishers to verify any authorization to use Olympic-related intellectual property. ”

The Regulations on the Protection of Olympic Symbols (Regulations) also came into force on 1 April, 2002.The Regulations strictly define rights for the Rights-holders, especially the names, emblems and symbols of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The Regulations also set up the definition of commercial purposes which includes using the Olympic property in goods, service, advertising ,selling or manufacturing purposes.8 Any use of the Olympic property shall be permitted by the authorities –incharge in regard of the Olympic Charter and the Host City Contract. The Regulations clearly state if any party engages in activities that infringe the rights of the Olympic property, the dispute should be firstly resolved by the mediation. As long as the mediation fails to resolve the dispute, the case will be directed to the Administrative Department for Industry and Commerce or the rights holder can bring an action in the court. As a result, there may be injunctions, confiscation, destroying infringed products and relevant tools ordered by the court. Any party that use unauthorized use

8 8 The Regulations on Protection of Olympics Symbols, People’s Republic of China, art. 5 ,2005

of Olympic property may have to pay the fine of five times of the illegal gains or up to 50,000 RMB yuan. The Regulations has also confirmed that Administrative Department for Industry and Commerce has the power to investigate the Olympic – specific intellectual property infringement, seize funds and levy fines. The Regulations are supposed to incorporate with the Olympic Charter, Host City Contract, and Criminal Procedure Law of China, Customs Law of China and the copyright ,trademark ,patent law laws.

According these regulations, the China Customs should protect Olympic property at the import or export process. The China Customs are to safeguard the legal interest of intellectual property rights holders and to combat intellectual property rights infringement. The China Customs has established a series of rules and provisions with cooperation with the Beijing Organizing Committee. “Since the Regulations were promulgated, the Customs has seized over a hundred of shipments infringing the exclusive rights of Olympic symbols at border” said the China Customs. The Customs’ efforts built a sound legal environment for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and wins high evaluation from the International Olympic Committee and Beijing Organizing Committee.

3.3 Non-law Enforcement Methods

To tackle the unauthorized use of Olympic property, especially the ambush marketing, there were non-law enforcement methods employed to meet the goal On July 2008,the BOCOG’s marketing department and the Chinese Advertising Association jointly issued an official “Anti-Ambush Advertising Initiative” in which urges advertising companies and practitioners to support business ethics. The BOCOG hoped to received supports from advertising companies and practitioners although the Initiative is just a moral compass without the power of enforcement.

Meanwhile, the BOCOG worked in conjunction with local councils to control the outdoor advertisings .During the Games, the advertising near the Olympic venues were under strictly supervision. It is not enough to solely rely on intellectual laws and regulations ,the adoption of legal non-law enforcement methods to protect Olympic property to a maximum.9

The non-law enforcement methods also include control of large events. All the nonOlympic related events were forbidden if and only if the event with the approval from BOCOG. This method would be also considered to increase the security level. There were staff at the entrance check points to stop people who were wearing uniforms or clothes with a company’s name or logo.

9 9 Harry Yang, ‘Non-law enforcement methods to tackle Olympic ambush marketing’, China IP, Issue24,June,2008

4.0 CONCLUSION

This essay has provided basic overview of the Chinese law system, especially the intellectual property law as well as the Olympic-specific intellectual property protections for 2008 Beijing Olympic Games from the law and non-law enforcements. No doubt, China’s Olympic intellectual property protections are timely and effective.

However, China should continue and increase their efforts to make intellectual property a primary responsibility of the entire China management team not just legal counsel. Everyone needs to buy into the importance of such protection. 10 In addition, China should strengthen the current Olympic-specific intellectual property rights protections system, for example, more allocation of human resources and financial resources to educate their staff, the regional authorities.

10 10 Kuan-Hua Wang, ‘Olympic Games and Intellectual Property:China’s chance to tell the world more…’,CASRIP Newsletter,Vol.15,Issue 2,Summer 2008