The Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games may be over, but malicious squatting of Olympic-related trademarks including mascots, slogans, athletes' names, and venue names are never off the hook. The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), on March 21, sent out a pronounced message, rejecting 1,270 trademark applications in connection with the Beijing 2022 in an official circular.

The above 1,270 trademark applications, which are rejected under Item 7 and 8 under Paragraph 1 of Article 10, Article 30 and other related terms of the Chinese Trademark Law, include No. 62717890 "Frog Princess", No. 62626622 "Yiming", No. 62478160 "Together for a Shared Future", No. 62034963 "Xuefeiyan", No. 62612144 "BINDUNDUN" and No. 62515920 "Shuey Rhon Rhon".

The CNIPA has been always placing IP protection for the Beijing 2022 high on its agenda, by giving an all-around protection package to relevant IPRs, constantly waging special campaigns on malicious trademark squatting and listing the Beijing 2022 symbols both those of the Winter Olympics and the Paralympics - as special symbols. In a February-14 official circular, 429 trademark applications including No.41128524 "Bing Dwen Dwen" and No. 62453532 "Gu Ailing" were rejected under the Regulations on the Protection of Olympic Symbols and Item 8 under Paragraph 1 of Article 10 of the Trademark Law. Forty-three already-registered trademarks including No.41126916 "Xue Dwen Dwen" and No. 38770198 "Gu Ailing" were declared invalid under the Trademark Law's Paragraph 1 of Article 44.

The CNIPA will keep on playing a full-court press on malicious squatting of trademarks, impose heavy sanctions on those squatting trademarks with bad faith to seek improper gains and those firms representing them, reject squatting applications without mercy and publish them in time, creating a clean environment for trademark registration and protection.