Legal eagles serious about brand protection

Any company that plans to illegally associate its brand with the Olympics is in for a rude awakening, as never before have intellectual property rights been so stoutly defended on the mainland.

'We will hunt down anybody who uses the Olympic symbols and trademarks without permission,' said Li Yanjun, director of the Coordination Division of Bocog's legal affairs division.

Over the past three years they have already successfully won 199 cases for copyright infringement relating to Olympic symbols, and fines totalling more than two million yuan have been handed out.

The government had published a special decree protecting all the Olympic symbols, he said, which showed the high priority they gave to the issue.

'And we have the full support of the enforcement agencies, the ministry of industry and commerce and the customs department,' he said, adding that the media and members of the public have also tipped them off to cases of IPR infringement.

There was no room for indirect association either, he said, as, in total, more than 160 Olympic marks had been registered with the government.

Aside from logos and trademarks, companies are not even to use words like 'Beijing 2008' in their promotional material.

The campaign to protect the Olympics IPR had focused on preventative measures, he said.

Officials have drilled department stores and market traders on the importance of not carrying unauthorised merchandise, and warned them of the penalties for doing so. In addition, factories around the country have been warned off accepting contracts to manufacture any product bearing Olympic-related symbols without the proper authorisation.

'Our efforts to protect the Olympics IPR are greatly helped by the fact we have the support of the whole country, and we are taking full advantage of that,' he said.