Olympic Spirit

When I think of the Olympics, in addition to price gouging, I generally think of gymnastics. And like so many other women my age, Olympic gymnastics means two things: Mary Lou Retton and Nadia Comeneci.

The following two videos can make me happy pretty much any day of the week. The first is of May Lou winning the gold medal in the 1984 Olympics. She wins the medal by scoring a perfect 10 on her first vault, then just to prove a point she takes the second vault (not required) and does it perfectly again. You gotta love Mary Lou. The second isn't actually an Olympic video – it's Gilda Radner pretending to be Nadia. Classic Radner.

Given that we are studying law here in Beijing, our thinking about the Olympics varies significantly from years past. Our present perspective is, you guessed it …legal. And last Friday, Peking University arranged for its LLM students to discuss the legal aspects of the Olympics with a representative from the legal affairs office of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad – fondly known as BOCOG. Generally speaking, the 50 people in the legal affairs department manage all the contracts surrounding the games and endeavor to protect the intellectual property rights of BOCOG. Several interesting topics emerged from our discussion.

Press Freedom: Historically, the Chinese government has provided only limited access to foreign journalists. But Beijing has repeatedly promised it would follow international rules for media coverage during the 2008 summer games, despite its past reticence. The State Council passed "Provisions on the Reporting Activities in China Conducted by Foreign Journalists during the Beijing Olympic Games and the Preparatory Period," which provides further detail on the topic. Will Beijing honor its committment to grant access to the world's journalists? Some groups are not so convinced--check out this ad from "Reporters without borders."

BOCOG's Entity Status: As far as we can tell, while BOCOG owns property and carries out business in its own name, it is not a corporation, LLC, or other formal business entity. Rather, it is a quasi-governmental body and (officially) a non-profit organization. BOCOG is technically a Ministry under the aegis of the State Council. Imagine, then, if the United States was holding the 2008 Olympics and made the organizing committee part of the Department of Commerce. This seems odd only to the extent that I cannot imagine the United States making the Olympics a state function. But then again, maybe they do?

Intellectual Property Spies: BOCOG employs students, including some of Peking University's very own, to help police the use of its trademarks. Students volunteer to look for un-licensed versions and then report the violations to BOCOG, who in turn reports the violations to other authorities. Anyone wishing to use the Olympic symbols must abide by the "Regulations on the Protection of Olympic Symbols."

After our discussion of Olympic legal issues we headed down to the gift shop and snapped a few pictures with the Olympic mascots known as the "Five Friendlies." The pictures are available below.

BOCOG