On December 16, the National Copyright Administration of the People’s Republic of China (NCAC) issued a notice and decided to carry out the special protection for the emblem of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games and Paralympic Games from the same day. The notice emphasizes that unless otherwise stipulated by laws and regulations, no unit or individual shall use the emblem of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games without permission from the Beijing Organising Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
The notice requires that administrative law-enforcement departments of copyright at all levels shall strengthen daily supervision and regulation of the emblem-related copyright, increase the investment in law enforcement resources and make full use of the technical means such as the copyright monitoring platform to carry out a full range of inspection on the emblem-related copyright. After the clue of infringement is found in time, the evidence should be secured immediately. Then the capable force shall be organized to investigate and deal with it rapidly and strictly pursuant to the law. Complaints and reports of emblem-related infringement shall be strengthened through widely publicizing complaint and reporting methods, releasing the award notice of report and increasing the incentive for effective reporting. The communication shall be enhanced with the large-scale markets, commodity distribution centers, book wholesale markets, famous tourist attractions and e-commerce platforms, so as to promote the relevant units to actively collect emblem-related infringement clues and promptly report to the administrative law-enforcement departments of copyright. Meanwhile, key copyright supervision and regulation shall be focused on major products including precious and non-precious metal products, silk products, ceramic products and stationery products related to the emblem at such important times as the release of the emblem, licensed products’ test run on the Internet, issuance of emblem commemorative stamps and the opening of franchise stores. All local authorities should determine the key regulatory objects, markets and areas offline, while identifying key regulatory websites, e-commerce platforms and online APP stores. They should dig deep to find case clues and trace to its source, in order to collaboratively handle the cases online and offline and crack down on illegal activities comprehensively.
The notice also urges that administrative law-enforcement departments of copyright at all levels shall determine a number of key cases involving copyright infringement of the emblem, and investigate and deal with them quickly in a centralized manner, to strengthen administrative punishment in accordance with the law. The suspected criminal cases should be timely transferred to the public security department for filing according to the “cohesion of administrative law enforcement and criminal justice”. Criminal crackdown should be strengthened pursuant to the law, to maintain high pressure on Olympics-related infringement and piracy. In order to ensure the smooth implementation of copyright protection of the emblem, the NCAC will also organize special training in the near future which focuses on the relevant legal issues of the copyright protection of the Olympic Games, so as to enhance the capacity of law enforcement and case handling of Olympics-related copyright. In addition, the NCAC has incorporated the copyright protection of the Olympic Games into the publicizing priority of the “4.26 Intellectual Property Publicity Week” in 2018, with the purpose of improving the public awareness of the copyright protection of the Olympic Games.
It’s known that to strengthen the copyright protection for the emblem of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, the Beijing Organising Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games appointed representatives to submit applications for copyright registration to the Copyright Registration Department of the Copyright Protection Center of China on the afternoon of December 15. The Copyright Protection Center of China issued the Beijing Organising Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games with the Works Registration Certificate for the copyrights of the “2022 Winter Olympic Games emblem” and “2022 Winter Paralympic Games emblem”.
Author: Lai Mingfang
Source: China Press Publication Radio Film and Television Journal
Update: December 18, 2017