The Beijing Olympic Intellectual Property Regulations: An Initial Step Toward Olympic IP Protection in China

By Steve Toronto & Chao Yijun, Morrison & Foerster

Beginning with the commercially successful Los Angeles summer Olympics in 1984, the licensing and use of Olympic marks, symbols, mascots, broadcast rights and other intellectual property (Olympic IP) have been critical to financing the Olympic Games.  Accordingly, in each jurisdiction where the Olympics have been held, local lawmakers have adopted rules, regulations and laws to ensure that special protection is given to Olympic IP.  In the United States, Olympic IP has been granted legal protection that extends well beyond that granted to other intellectual property.  It is no surprise that soon after Beijing was selected as host of the 2008 Summer Games, regulations were promulgated to provide special protection for the Olympic IP needed to help finance Beijing's "Great Olympics".  It should also be noted that protecting Olympic IP is not only in the interest of Beijing and China but also a contractual obligation under the host city contract with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the China Olympic Committee (COC) and Beijing Municipality (the Host City Contract). 

The Beijing Regulations are intended to provide broad protection for all aspects of the use of Olympic IP in Beijing Municipality.  With the establishment of the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (the BOCOG) in December 2001 and acceleration of activities related to the 2008 Summer Games, it is expected that in the near future, national-level regulations will also be promulgated.  Because of the extensive reach of both Olympic IP generally and the Beijing Regulations particularly, parties involved directly or indirectly with the Beijing Olympics should become familiar with these and any further regulations.

Who and What Is Protected?

Article 2 of the Beijing Regulations identifies the parties to be protected by these provisions as the IOC, the COC, the BOCOG and their respective authorized licensees.  The specific rights of principal parties and principal licensees are generally detailed in the Host City Contract referred to indirectly in Article 2, which is the fundamental document establishing the relationship between the various Olympic entities.  Unfortunately, this document is not generally publicly available.  Article 6 of the Beijing Regulations further alludes to the relationship and the allocation of the rights among those rights holders under the Host City Contract. 

Articles 2 and 3 also demonstrate the extent to which Olympic IP will be protected.  The Beijing Regulations cover, as expected, trademark, patent and copyright protection for property such as the Olympic symbol (five Olympic Rings), flag, anthem and motto as well as the terms or designs containing the words OLYMPIC, OLYMPICS, OLYMPIAD and OLYMPIC GAMES.  They also cover the logos, mascots, names, symbols (including Beijing 2008), anthem and slogans developed by Beijing.  Importantly, Article 3(iv) provides a catchall of "other subjects of Olympic intellectual property rights".  This presumably refers to a wide range of proprietary information and objects that can include such disparate subjects as medical data, statistical data, domain names, and moulds of badges, medals and torches.  The reason for this category of Olympic IP is to accommodate provisions that are detailed in the Host City Contract. Reference is made to the various intellectual property rights stipulated under thePRC Trademark Law (中华人民共和国商标法) (Trademark Law), PRC Patent Law  (中华人民共和国专利法) (Patent Law) and PRC Copyright Law  (中华人民共和国著作权法) (Copyright Law).  Presumably, the Beijing Regulations would not pre-empt applicability of these laws but the relationship of the Beijing Regulations to such laws is not clearly stated.