Customers shop at a store offering merchandise for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 games is scheduled to take place on February 4, 2022. Photo: cnsphoto

China is working hard to crack down on copyright infringement to protect the intellectual property rights of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) stated on Thursday, noting that it will launch nationwide special campaigns to intensify the fight against infringement and support the hosting of a wonderful, extraordinary and outstanding sports event.

At a news conference in Beijing, Shen Changyu, head of the CNIPA, said that during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in 2021, the number of cases of squatting on Olympic champions' names subject to trademark rose, which CNIPA has been firmly opposed to and has promptly cracked down on. 

On August 19, the CNIPA issued an announcement that it was rejecting 109 applications that attempted to maliciously snatch the names of Chinese Olympic gold medalists as trademarks, such as Yang Qian, Chen Meng and  Quan Hongchan, who achieved breakthrough achievements at the Olympic Games and were favored by netizens, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Trademark Law, and revealed the list of applicants and agents.

This action sent a clear signal that China is cracking down on malicious trademark grabbing and was widely recognized by the public, Shen said.

Shen pointed out that since the successful bid for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, the CNIPA has done a lot of work in conjunction with relevant departments, including promoting the revision of the Regulations on the Protection of Olympic Symbols, and the implementation of special protection for Olympic symbols such as the emblems and mascots of the Winter Olympic Games and the Winter Paralympic Games.

"At the same time, the CNIPA also guided the Beijing and North China's Hebei Province to carry out trans-regional and trans-departmental intellectual property rights protection for the Winter Olympics, which has also achieved good results," Shen said.

With only a few months to go before the Winter Olympics in 2022, the CNIPA will further collaborate with relevant departments to intensify the fight against infringement, he noted.