Court reveals man who illegally sold Olympics merchandise imprisoned in 2022

The Beijing High People's Court unveiled an intellectual property case concerning the Beijing Winter Olympics mascot on Tuesday, showing the city's strong judicial determination against IP infringements.

In the case, a man surnamed Ren was sentenced to one year in prison and was ordered to pay a fine of 40,000 yuan ($5,791) by a Beijing district-level court early last year after he was found to have produced and sold mascot-like dolls at the end of 2021 without permission from the Beijing organizing committee of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, according to a statement issued by the high court.

Ren should be harshly punished because his behavior seriously infringed upon the copyright of the committee, it said, adding that his profits from sales had also been seized.

It was China's first criminal case in which the copyright of the Beijing Winter Olympics mascot was infringed upon, noting that the ruling demonstrated the Chinese judicial organs' determination to strongly protect IP rights.

"Efficiently concluding the case ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics not only contributed to combating IP-related crimes, but also ensured the smooth operation of the sports event," said Ren Xuefeng, vice-president of the high court.

He revealed that courts across the city heard more than 72,000 IP disputes last year, of which over 46,000 were civil cases.

While paying closer attention to protecting IP rights related to the Olympics logo, he added that the Beijing courts also increased punishments for individuals and agencies that conducted malicious trademark registration in 2022 to better regulate industrial development.