Sports Big Business No. 2810, welcome to pay attention to the leading sports industry information platform
Wen | Zhuang Tour
Sports big business reporter
The exposure of high frequency and the superposition of celebrity effects have made the sales of ice piers rise all the way. Taking advantage of the opportunity of the Spring Festival, the "Ice Pier" New Year Special Edition was launched, which was also warmly welcomed by the whole network.
"Ice Pier" Spring Festival Special Edition
Some netizens joked that "in order to buy an ice pier, I froze into an ice pier in the cold wind", and some netizens could not help but sigh, "Once the shopping mall was full of ice piers in front of me, but I did not cherish", "I wanted the ice pier, only the road to the Olympic championship was left"...
However, the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee has also repeatedly responded to the situation of "one pier is difficult to find", saying that it will increase supply, and the sales of ice piers will continue until the end of June this year, which is expected to achieve "one person and one pier" as soon as possible.
The continued popularity of ice piers and the shortage of spot spots have also spawned market chaos. A series of infringing sales around the ice piers have also appeared in the market. However, the imitation and sale of ice piers and other Winter Olympic mascots may have violated relevant laws.
The goods around the Olympic Games are hot, and there are legal risks in illegal sales
Recently, the news that infringement involving the mascot of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the "ice pier", has been strictly investigated and punished has often appeared in the news.
On the afternoon of February 9, the Shantou Municipal Bureau of Market Supervision and Administration found in a local dessert shop that the dessert sold by the store called "Strawberry Snow Mountain Cake" was printed with the Olympic five-ring pattern logo, and the shape of the dessert was suspected of infringing the design rights of the mascot "Ice Pier" of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
On February 10, Chongqing discovered that a cake shop was selling customized "ice pier" cakes, and the first local case of infringement of the Olympic symbol selling custom mascot "ice pier" was investigated.
On the afternoon of February 11, the Zhenhai District Market Supervision Bureau in Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, inspected the key commercial business sites in its jurisdiction and found that a cake bakery was selling a cake with the Olympic five ring logo printed on it, and the shape of the cake was suspected of infringing the design rights of the mascot of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, "Ice Pier".
On February 13, the Market Supervision Bureau of Nantong City, Jiangsu Province, received a report that a cake shop was selling homemade "ice pier" shaped cakes in the circle of friends for 200 yuan. Because he did not obtain the authorization related to the Olympic symbol, he has been investigated and punished for suspected infringement.
Even, around the "ice pier", some merchants have launched the "ice pier" tangyuan, nail art, coffee, to help the people who are eager to dune to achieve the freedom of the "ice pier".
However, experts remind that similar acts of using the "ice pier" logo for commercial purposes without permission constitute infringement.
However, the above situation is not unique. As early as before the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, Beijing Erguotou was ordered by the Beijing Municipal Market Supervision and Administration Bureau to make corrections and fined more than 61,000 yuan for producing commemorative wine products labeled "2022 Beijing Winter Olympics" and violating the Regulations on the Protection of Olympic Symbols.
In addition to the "ice pier", in the previous competitions, the act of rubbing the copyright related to the competition for profit has also been severely cracked down by the relevant departments many times. At the Tokyo Olympics last year, Olympic champion Yang Qian's hairpin with the "Little Yellow Duck" was one of the examples.
Before becoming a hit, the "Little Yellow Duck" hairpin was generally sold because it belonged to the old model. But with Yang Qian's Olympic victory, it also brought fire to this hairpin, and the sales volume rushed from one or two hundred a day before to breaking thousands in a single hour and tens of thousands in a single day. In order to meet the needs of consumers, merchants have temporarily added a large number of supplies.
However, many merchants use the name, picture and virtual animation image of athlete Yang Qian when selling the "Little Yellow Duck HairPin", but it may infringe on the portrait rights of athletes, even if the animation image based on the portrait of the athlete himself is still essentially part of the portrait right, and it cannot be used without authorization.
From the perspective of some merchants, the traffic brought by large-scale events such as the Winter Olympics is obviously huge, and huge profits can be obtained by embezzling the copyright of related goods. Even knowing or suspected of violating the law, but still choosing to infringe in the face of interests.
In many sports-related product copyright protection, the current market still has some problems to a greater or lesser extent. However, in terms of copyright protection related to the mascot of the Winter Olympics, from copyright registration to the recent crackdown by relevant departments, it is also expected to become a model for copyright protection in other segments of the sports industry.
The protection mechanism for the rights and interests of the Olympic mascot is gradually improving
The community should also raise awareness of copyright
On September 16, 2019, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee has applied for the full category of the "Ice Pier" trademark. The appearance patent of "Ice Pier" was protected in August 2019 in a timely manner, including eight appearance patent categories such as stickers, signage, and graphical user interface.
According to the provisions of Articles 2, 5 and 12 of the Regulations on the Protection of Olympic Symbols, the name of the Olympic Games and its abbreviations, mascots, anthems, torch shapes, slogans, "name of the host city + year of holding" and other symbols belong to the Olympic symbols, and no unit or individual may use the Olympic symbols or similar signs sufficient to cause people to be mistaken for commercial purposes without the permission of the right holder of the Olympic symbols.
In September 2021, at the press conference of the state's new office, Shen Changyu, director of the State Intellectual Property Office, said that during the Tokyo Olympic Games in Japan this year, there was a problem of trademark squatting in the names of Olympic champions. The State Intellectual Property Office firmly opposes such acts and cracks down on them in a timely manner.
On August 19, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) issued a notice to quickly reject 109 trademarks in bad faith, such as "Yang Qian", "Chen Meng" and "Quan Hongchan", in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Trademark Law, and exposed the list of applicants and agencies, creating a high-pressure situation in the whole society to severely crack down on bad faith trademark squatting. The relevant local IP management departments have interviewed the relevant agencies and imposed administrative penalties. In the future, the State Intellectual Property Office will continue to maintain a high-pressure posture against trademark squatting and hoarding.
Since the successful bid for the Winter Olympic Games, the State Intellectual Property Office has done a lot of work in conjunction with relevant departments, including promoting the revision of the Regulations on the Protection of Olympic Symbols, carrying out three-dimensional protection of patents, trademarks and other intellectual property rights for Olympic symbols, and implementing special protection for Olympic symbols such as the emblems and mascots of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.
In October 2021, the State Intellectual Property Office successively issued the "Special Action Plan for the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights of the Olympic Symbols of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games", the "Interpretation of the Special Action Plan for the Protection of the Intellectual Property Rights of the Olympic Symbols of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games" and other documents, and announced the protected Olympic symbols and relevant symbols of the Paralympic Games.
In the list of protected signs announced, well-known signs such as "ice pier" and "snow melting" are listed in it.
Partial announcement protects the Olympic symbol
And Paralympic games related signs
The recent crackdown on the infringement of logos related to the Winter Olympics also means that the mainland has adopted stricter law enforcement in the protection of sports-related copyrights, protecting the commercial interests of relevant genuine copyrights.
In accordance with the Regulations on the Protection of Olympic Symbols, the IOC's global partners and official partners and official sponsors of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games may commercially use the image and name of the "ice pier" in accordance with the law. In addition, Beijing Winter Olympics franchise manufacturers and retailers can produce and sell licensed goods with the image and name of "Ice Pier" in accordance with the Beijing Winter Olympics franchise plan.
For society, this is also a correction for some of the situations that have been despised in the past for sports intellectual property rights. When copyright abuse is timely regulated, pirated goods gradually lose their living space in the market, and the release of genuine rights and interests in the sale of goods is expected to further enhance the commercial value of various sports events and IP, and make China's sports industry move towards a positive cycle that is more conducive to commercial development.
Note: The images used in this article are from the Internet