【Research Center for the Legal System of Intellectual Property】

Activities

Olympic and Intellectual Property

Visiting researcher Toshitaka Kudo

The Summer Olympic Games will be held in Beijing, China from August 8th of this year. It is a world-famous festival held in every four years. However, at the same time, there are many merchants taking advantage of the event to make a profit as always in festivals of this kind from all ages and countries.

According to the Olympic Charter, all rights to the Olympic flag, the Olympic symbol (the five interlaced rings), and the Olympic motto ("Citius, Altius, Fortius", which is Latin for "Faster, Higher, Stronger") belong exclusively to the International Olympic Committee. However, it is only a bylaw set by one association, which is the International Olympic Committee. Under our domestic laws, Paragraph (1)-(iii) of Article 4 of the Trademark Law or Article 17 of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act indirectly guarantees the exclusive rights of those to the International Olympic Committee, IOC or the Japan Olympic Committee, JOC. In reality, other than the IOC or the JOC, companies who are sponsors of the Olympic are granted a license to use the Olympic five rings or symbol and they use those for their ads. (Other than the registration by the IOC, there is a preceding registration for the trademark of "Olympic" in Japanese or English by other general companies.)

The Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 is regarded as the turning point to make the Olympic Games "commercialized". But the Intellectual Property disputes for the Olympic properties like five rings mark had already occurred at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932, more than half a century before 1984. In the 1932 Olympics, a local bakery who provided bread to the athletes' village as an official supplier registered a trademark of the Olympic five rings or the Olympic motto across the United States. Later, it was escalated into conflict between the bakery and the United States Olympic Committee. More than a decade was needed to put an end to the conflict until the USOC obtained a license for the trademark from the bakery.

Also, in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, an association obtained permission from the JOC to use the Olympic symbols for a lantern for ornamental and promotional purposes. Then, the association had a conflict with the JOC over the renewal of the permission. The Tokyo District Court Decision on September 24 of 1964, Kaminsyu Vol.15, No. 9, p.2293, examined, in addition to the renewal of the permission, the JOC's argument that the JOC holds the copyright of the Olympic marks such as five rings. Although it questioned the copyrightability, the process to obtain the right, and the term of protection, the decision showed a certain understanding of the argument that the JOC owned the copyright. (However, from the present viewpoint, the decision is not entirely acceptable.)

Now, the Beijing Olympics this time. The Chinese government, which has been strengthening Intellectual Property protection for some time, determined the current trademark laws were not enough. It enforced "Regulations on the Protection of Olympic Symbols" in order to concretely define the right to use the Olympic symbols or the investigational authority by the government related to the Olympic symbols. (Enforced on April 1 of 2002 by the Trademark Office, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce: CTMO) However, there seems to be no end to the infringing cases using the Olympic five rings mark and symbols illegally. According to the statistics by the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), the losses have already amounted to 16.93 million Yuan (about 250 million yen) due to the infringement of Olympic symbols within China from 2004 to September 2007. This May, Director of the Beijing Municipal Intellectual Property Office (BIPO), announced that Beijing will set up the mechanism promptly responding to the issues of the protection of the Beijing Olympics Intellectual property rights. It will tighten control over various illegal acts infringing IPR.

This Olympic is the touchstone for China in the various meanings. All Olympics athletes must be making final adjustments to the Olympic Games. I am wondering the final work in this stage will also determine the outcome for controlling illegal products infringing the Olympic IPR. I sincerely hope the peaceful festivities will achieve a successful conclusion.