Recently, the Market Supervision Administration of Xiacheng District, Hangzhou City made its first administrative penalty decision over infringement of IPRs of the 19th Asian Games (the Games) in Hangzhou 2022. "As of now this year, we have pled law enforcement agencies to deal with 11 such cases," said Zhang Haiping, legal director of the Games' Organizing Committee, in an interview with a reporter of China Intellectual Property News.

Last July, the Committee was tipped that an advertisement used the Asian Games emblem "Tide" side by side with some corporate logo in a music street in Xiacheng, and  a message "The 19th Asian Games 2022 is coming soon in Hangzhou, China" also appeared in the advertisement, which could make people mistakenly believe that the company has some association with the Games. The Committee then immediately swung to an on-site evidence preservation of the suspected infringing advertisement with the aid of a notary office, and notified the local market regulation administration.

After investigation, the administration identified the producer of the advertisement, a beauty salon and the  publisher, a technology company, both located in Hangzhou. Their acts of unauthorized use of the "Tide" emblem and the name of the Games were determined infringement over the exclusive rights of the Committee  andviolation of unfair competition rules. Subsequently, the  two companies removed the advertisement in question. In view of the companies' active cooperation in the investigation, the administration ordered the beauty salon to immediately cease infringement and pay 2,000 yuan in fines; and the technology company to cease in fringement as well, turn in 15,000 yuan in illicit revenues of and  2,000 yuan in fines.

As of now, the Committee has registered 12 terms in both Chinese and English as special symbols, including the "19th Asian Games in 2022," "Hangzhou Asian Games," "Organization Committee of Hangzhou Asian Games", and "Hangzhou Asian Games", as well as the "Tide" emblem. The slogan, mascot and "Tide" emblem have also been registered as copyright. Registration of the domain name and similar domain names of the Games' official website have also been done. In parallel, the Committee has also obtained the copyrights of the slogan, emblem and mascot of the 4th Asian Para Games in Hangzhou.

In a bid to beef up protection on special symbols of the Games, Hangzhou recently issued the Circular on Strengthening the Protection of Symbols and Well-Known Marks of the Asian Games.

"Enhancing IP protection of the Asian Games is an international obligation that must be fulfilled. It is also an important task to safeguard reputation of the Games and the Committee, which is conducive to generate a  friendly climate that respects the value of knowledge in the society," Zhang Haiping stressed.