First Half Of Essay-finalized

10 INTRODUCTION

To what extent has the Chinese sought to protect the Olympic property? This essay aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the IP (intellectual property) environment in China by examining the case of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games would attract more business people and many businesses might take advantages of the Games to promote their brand images and public awareness. However, the unauthorised use of Olympic property might also appear which would inevitable jeopardize the reputation of the country as an organizer. In this regard this essay will describe the law, especially the intellectual property law system in China, the Globalization of the intellectual property, and this essay will discuss the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to highlight the Olympic-specific IP protections from the law and non-law perspectives .

20 IP ENVIRONMENT IN CHINA

2.1 Globalization of intellectual property

IP refers to the legally protected rights given to people over their intellectual creations in the scientific, industrial, artistic and literary fields, under which the owner has the exclusive right of the creation for a certain period of time and any exploitation must be under the consent of the owner.1 Intellectual property rights protection is a complicated issue in a word of many countries linked by international business. The most notable characteristic of the current is the emergence of new intellectual property concerns ， from ambush marketing to unauthorized web-broadcast. The globalization of intellectual property can be summarized as an expansion in depth and geographical coverage of the protection.2

There are more and more multinational companies and individuals who are actively engaging in international business, obtaining worldwide intellectual property protection ,is extremely costly and time-consuming.3

2.2 Intellectual Property Laws at China

China employs the continental legal system known as civil law. Different from USA and other countries that have the checks and balances, the administration in China is also responsible for formulating laws and regulations, implementing laws and

1 The World Intellectual Property Organization, ‘Introduction to Intellectual Property: Theory and Practice ’ ,Kluwer Law International, London, 1997.

2 Daniel J. Gervais, ‘The Internalization of Intellectual Property: New Challenges from the Very Old to the Very New’，Media and Entertainment Law Journal ,Spring 2002,p.6

3 Yang and Clarke, ‘Globalization and intellectual property in China’,Technovation,Vol.25,pp.525-555

regulations. Case law is not regard as a form of legal authority; however, the case was handled wisely by the administrative organ.

China’s current legal system, including intellectual property law, was founded on the 1982 Constitution as amended. Based on the experience of implementing the initial laws, Chinese intellectual property law system is gradually expanding scope of protection. For example, the 1995 Regulation of the Protection of Intellectual Property Law by Custom Authority; the Patent Law of 1985.In addition, the administrative organizations, including the National Patent Office, the National Trademark Office, and the National Copyright Office were combined into the National Intellectual Property Office so as to perfect its intellectual property law system. Today, China plays important roles in almost all important international organizations and conventions or treaties of intellectual property .However, even today there is an argument that China is known as a haven for the manufacture of pirated goods and such argument was mentioned during the application for 2008 Olympic Games to quiz the Chinese. Actually, the comparison of the status of Chinese intellectual property law in 1994 with the new international cooperation standards established in TRIPS (Agreement On Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) during the same year, we will discover that China has successfully met these new international standards.

4

In addition, the Chinese government

promised to perfect its intellectual law system so as to add value to 2008 Olympic Games which this essay will explore the relevant laws in section three.

However, despite the efforts China has made, problems still exist. It cannot be denied that one of the major practical problems about the system of intellectual property laws in China is the weak enforcement. 5Moreover, it has even been argued that paying damages is seen as an incidental cost of running a piracy business, and therefore the threat of court action is no real threat at all. 6Generaly speaking, China still has established its effective legal system of intellectual property1

14：Weiqiu Long，‘Intellectual Property in China’，St.Mary’s Law Journal，Vol.31,no.1.1999,p.72 5：Veronica Weinstein and Dennis Fernandez, ‘Recent Developments in China's Intellectual Property Laws’, Chinese Journal of International law,Vol.3,no.1,2004,pp.227-240 6：Fred Greguras, ‘Intellectual Property Strategy and best practices for RD services in China’, Computer Law and Security Report,Vol.23,Issue 5,2007,Pp.449-452