China Promises To Protect Beijing Olympic Sponsors

China has promised to step up efforts to protect more than sixty official sponsors of the Beijing Olympic Games from non Olympic sponsors, who can spend a lot of money on linking their brands to the world's biggest sporting events.

The Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games said Tuesday that organized groups of audience will be allowed to enter Olympic venues in uniform uniforms or marked clothing during the Olympic Games.

The ban was announced at a joint news conference between the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee and China Advertising Association, and it was also applied to Olympic sponsors and non sponsors.

Chen Feng, Vice Minister of the market development department of the OCOG, pointed out at the press conference that the basic idea is to create a "clean venue", that is, non commercialization.

Spectators can not even bring drinks into Olympic venues, but sponsors Coca Cola Co (Coca-ColaCo.) products will be sold in venues.

During the period from July 11th to September 17th, the Olympic Committee will control the billboards in major areas such as stations and main roads in order to give priority to sponsors.

Besides, without the prior permission of Olympic officials, athletes and coaches can not use their images to promote marketing.

Generally speaking, Olympic host cities are under pressure to protect sponsors. The latter is a major source of Olympic revenue.

As China has been criticized in other areas for its violation of intellectual property rights, it has been very careful in protecting Olympic investment.

In 2002, China also implemented laws and regulations related to the protection of Olympic logo related intellectual property rights.

Chen Feng pointed out that during the Olympic torch relay, there was a phenomenon of non sponsors violating regulations, such as the use of torch images in advertising.

He said that some enterprises also promoted the sale of tickets by giving them Olympic tickets, which also violated the relevant policies.

SabrinaCheung, director of corporate public relations at Adidas Beijing Adidas, said it believes the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee can protect them from illegal marketing practices.

Adidas's competitors Nike Inc. and Li Ning Co Ltd (Li Ning Co.) have been playing the Olympic Games in recent days. They have launched a large number of advertisements featuring Olympic athletes and Olympic themes in TV and signboard advertisements. Cheung said there is no doubt that Adidas is the official sportswear partner of the Beijing Olympic Games.

However, the law still can not prohibit many behaviors of edge ball, while some small companies are not familiar with the relevant laws and regulations.

Chen Feng said that in order to help them, we may consider exposing improper practices through the media.