There’s a dispute between a domestic company that has designed a logo similar to the Beijing 2008 “Dancing Beijing” logo, and the Beijing 2008 Olympic committee. Officials and experts are debating who is the legal proprietor of Beijing’s trademark and intellectual property rights.
It seems that Beijing’s Organizing Committee has not yet applied for the layout design patent of the emblem, but it has registered the trademark for using Dancing Beijing.
The committee may now have to pay for the designing patent to the company for the next five years, reports the Beijing News.
An official from the Beijing Organizing Committee said, “generally, the previous Olympic Games had only applied for trademark registration and not necessarily for patents. The committee has registered the trademark for Dancing Beijing both at home and abroad”.
He said the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and the State Intellectual Property Office may also disagree on the intellectual property rights of the emblem.
Sources from the Trademark Department of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce said under the current trademark law the organizing committee can enjoy overall protection since it has applied for the trademark of Dancing Beijing. Others who use the emblem as a commodity trademark will violate the regulation.
An official from the Industrial Design Examination Department of State Intellectual Property Office told China Daily that the Beijing Organizing Committee can apply for the overlapped protection of trademark and patent. But if a company applies for patent protection, such protection may conflict with the committee’s trademark protection because the company and the committee are different entities.
He added that the current situation for the Beijing Organizing Committee is not that difficult if the committee can reverse it in a timely manner since “Dancing Beijing” is not the only symbol of the 2008 Games.
A professor of Trademark Law said the Beijing Organizing Committee could ask the company to withdraw patent applications or resort to the courts if necessary.
Meanwhile, Beijing has been selected as the site of the 2005 World Boxing Championship. The State-run daily Granma said the selection of Beijing is justified as it will be the host of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
