Olympic mascots get all-around protection

The National Intellectual Property Administration is pushing to promote IP protection for cartoon panda Bing Dwen Dwen and personified red lantern Shuey Rhon Rhon, the newly introduced official mascots of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympic Games.

On Sept 16, a day before the mascots were unveiled, NIPA received a series of applications from the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The submissions included eight applications for design patents and 270 trademark filings related to the mascots' images.

"Mascots are intangible assets of the Olympic Games," China Intellectual Property News quoted an anonymous official with NIPA as saying. "Protecting Olympic mascots' IP plays a vital role in promoting the Olympics' sustainable development and maintaining its reputation.

"The applications we are processing are an important part of IP protection work for the mascots of the 2022 Winter Games," the official added.

It has been reported that China issued a regulation on the protection of Olympic symbols in 2002, which provided a strong guarantee for the success of the Beijing 2008 Games. Last year, the regulation was revised, detailing the range, identification and protection of Olympic symbols.

Complying with the revised rules, the Beijing 2022 Organizing Committee presented the mascots' names and images as Olympic symbols to NIPA for announcement.

Once the announcement is made, using the Bing Dwen Dwen and Shuey Rhon Rhon without authorization or using similar symbols to mislead the public will constitute violations of the exclusive rights to Olympic symbols. Violators will be likely to face fines and other punishments.

Since Beijing won the bid for the 24th Winter Olympics and Paralympics in 2015, NIPA has made solid progress in IP protection for the Games, its officials said.

All-around IP protection for the emblems of the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games has been achieved, which covers the emblems' copyright, patents and trademarks.

In the next few years, NIPA will continue to cooperate with the organizing committee and focus on the IP protection for the Olympic torches and mascots, they said, adding that a complaint mechanism for infringements reporting about Beijing 2022 will be established.

Meanwhile, NIPA will organize special campaigns against IP infringements in key regions across China such as Beijing and neighboring Hebei province, making better preparations for the Games in 2022.

Zhang Linwan contributed to this story.

(China Daily 09/26/2019 page17)