A study on legal protection of Olympic intellectual property.

• Author: Fei, Gao

1 The scope of Olympic intellectual property and the origin of its legal protection

Olympic intellectual property means the exclusive rights applying to trademarks, specific symbols, patents, productions and other creative achievements, associated with specific Olympic entities. Safeguarding Olympic intellectual property entails protecting the relevant rights of individuals.

Olympic intellectual property includes the following three types: (1) the property rights belonging permanently to the IOC including the Olympic name, symbol, emblems, flag, motto, anthem, and all matters relating thereto; (2) the property rights which emerge during the period of bidding, construction and organisation of Olympic Games including the Olympic symbol, name, motto, and so on; (3) the property rights obtained by organisations or persons through legal means including the broadcasting rights to Olympic programmes, authorised commodities of Olympic intellectual property, Olympic-related productions and patents relating to these (1).

The concept of Olympic intellectual property began in the 1970s when Peter Ueberroth explored the Olympics' commercial operation; it developed rapidly in the 1980s. The legal protection of Olympic intellectual property arose from official agreement in the Nairobi Treaty, and in launching enforcement and safeguarding Olympic intellectual property, the IOC has registered the relevant trademarks for commodities and services. By 1981, 21 countries had signed the Nairobi Treaty, which stipulated that any State party to the treaty be obliged to refuse or to invalidate the registration as a trademark and take appropriate measures to prohibit using the relevant trademark or other sign for business purposes, as well as ban the use of any sign consisting of or containing the Olympic symbol, as defined in the Charter of the International Olympic Committee. By 15 July 2003, the number of signatories to the Nairobi Treaty had risen to 41, granting Olympic intellectual property further protection through legal channels.

2 Features of the protection of Olympic intellectual property

When considering intellectual property, Olympic intellectual property certainly bears the general features of intellectual property generally, i.e. its monopolistic and geographical aspects. However, in terms of specific intellectual property, its legal protection features some differences compared to the general concept of intellectual property, with the main aspects being the following:

2.1 Legal protection of Olympic intellectual property is subject to the Olympic Charter. Although following the development of the Olympic movement as a whole, the Olympic Games bear an increasingly close relationship to the legal order, and while the movement enjoys legal protection and support, the Olympic movement is not subject to the laws of individual countries. The impact of the Olympic Games and the joint efforts of the many countries involved mean that the Olympic Charter is respected by the countries' individual legal systems, especially in terms of intellectual property as enshrined in the Olympic Charter. Many of these countries have adopted relevant regulations governing protecting Olympic intellectual property in their own legal systems. The protection of Olympic intellectual property is deeply rooted in the Olympic Charter.

2.2 The legal protection of Olympic intellectual property is without limitation. This is one of the key features in its protection of intellectual property, attaching particular obligations relating to Olympic intellectual property. Non-limitation has been enshrined definitively in the Olympic Charter, which states that: in terms of the Olympic Charter, all rights to the Olympic symbol, flags, motto and anthem are collectively reserved by the IOC; each NOC is responsible to the IOC for their observance of this provision. Furthermore, each NOC applies to use the Olympic symbol and Olympic emblems, which continue to be registered as trademarks. The relevant trademarks therefore enjoy no limitation.

2.3 The uniqueness of the authority entity.

In China, the person who owns copyrights, patents and...