If you ask who is the top of the Beijing Winter Olympics these days, the mascot "Ice Pier" must have its name. Since a "pier" is difficult to find, can the manufacturers themselves produce "ice piers"? The answer is: this may constitute infringement! The reporter learned from the Tongzhou District Market Supervision Bureau on the 10th that the law enforcement personnel of the bureau thundered and investigated and dealt with a case of unauthorized production and sale of "ice pier" T-shirts.
The case involved a merchant infringing an online store
On February 1, the Tenth General Branch of the Tongzhou District Market Supervision Bureau received a report from the public that a textile technology company in the jurisdiction sold T-shirts printed with the "ice pier" pattern of the mascot of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in its Tmall online store, suspected of infringing the intellectual property rights of the Olympic symbol.
After receiving the report, the sub-bureau urgently held a special inspection meeting to form a core law enforcement personnel to conduct carpet mapping. Due to the anonymous reporting of the whistleblower and the lack of detailed content of the reporting information, the audit work is more difficult. Through a large number of screenshots to collect evidence and compare information, law enforcement officers finally locked the suspect in a remote factory building located in a village in Shizong Town, Tongzhou District. However, when law enforcement personnel inspected the scene, the doors and windows of the factory were closed tightly and there was no sign of production.
After discussion, the Tenth General Sub-Bureau decided to adopt a rotation system to control the peripheral deployment of the parties and monitor the factory building for 24 hours. After a full 7 days of squatting, law enforcement officers finally found a breakthrough. Originally, in order to avoid people's eyes and ears, the parties closed the factory building completely, all the workers ate and lived in the factory, the elevator had to swipe the card, and only from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. to start production, during which the curtains were tightly closed, and there was no obvious light on the periphery.
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games are an important opportunity to show the national image, promote national development and invigorate the national spirit. The intellectual property rights of the logos, emblems, mascots and other related signs are protected and cannot be infringed. On February 8, the bureau decided to carry out the "Huwei No. 1" network collection operation. Law enforcement personnel looked at the gap between the employees of the parties going out to buy cigarettes, and suddenly entered the production area of the parties, and found a total of 2 sets of automatic digital printers with patterns, 1 T-shirt ironing machine, 50 samples of finished T-shirts printed with the "ice pier" pattern, and 20 "ice pier" flower templates, with a total value of 2250 yuan. The parties stated that the "ice pier" pattern was downloaded and printed by itself from the Internet, and without relevant authorization, they confessed to the illegal facts. The case is currently under further investigation.
Infringing items seized
According to the Announcement of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee on the Mascots and Mascots of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and the Winter Paralympic Games issued by the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee on September 17, 2019, the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, as the copyright holder of the image of the ice pier, has registered the image of the ice pier and the snow rongrong at the China Copyright Protection Center, and has filed a trademark registration application for the image and name of the mascot at the Trademark Office of the State Intellectual Property Office. The image and name of the mascot are also submitted to the State Intellectual Property Office for public announcement as the Olympic symbol. Therefore, the production and sale of pirated peripheries of the ice pier belongs to the "reproduction and use of Olympic symbols and Olympic-related works without permission", which violates the Regulations on the Protection of Olympic Symbols, the Regulations on the Administration of Distinctive Signs, the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China, the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China, the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China, the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China, and if the pirated peripherals are sold online, it will also violate the "E-commerce Law of the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China".
The protection of the Olympic symbol is the obligation of the host Country of the Olympic Games and the obligation of citizens. Mascots, as part of the Olympic symbol, should also be protected. The Tongzhou District Market Supervision Bureau hereby appeals to the general public to respect the intellectual property rights of the Olympic symbol, not to produce and sell pirated copies of the Mascot of the Winter Olympic Games, and to obtain the "ice pier" through legal channels.
Source: Nantong Release