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2 September 2015Copyright

Tokyo Olympics logo scrapped after copyright claim

The logo for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games has been ditched following an allegation that it infringed copyright belong to a Belgian artist.

In a statement published yesterday, September 1, the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games confirmed that its logo, revealed last month, had been withdrawn.

“The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games today decided to withdraw the current games emblems,” the committee said, adding that further information on the new logo would be announced as soon as it is available.

The emblem, created by designer Kenjiro Sano, has a black block in the middle of a square shape with curved triangles in two corners. It also features a red circle similar to that on the Japanese flag.

Belgian designer Olivier Debie claimed that the design was similar to a logo that he designed for theatre company Théâtre de Liège in 2013.

Debie, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live yesterday, said he was surprised by the decision.

“I thought the Olympic committee was a big machine and I didn’t dare to take action against them.”

But the director of Théâtre de Liège told him that they should take action together, he said.

According to reports, the company filed a lawsuit on August 13.

Kensaku Takase, partner at law firm Baker & McKenzie in Tokyo, told WIPR that the logo has gained a lot of attention in Japan.

“I was not aware of a lawsuit being filed, but now that the logo is being abandoned it seems that there would be little point in pursuing such an action,” he said.

The withdrawal comes just days after the committee defended Sano and said it was confident that the logo did not infringe Debie’s copyright.

“We are convinced that the design of the Tokyo Olympics logo is original,” Toshiro Muto, director general of the committee, was quoted as saying during a press conference last week.

Sano has denied plagiarising the logo but did admit that he and his team copied other work from a separate beer promotion.

Takase added: “While there are a lot of features shared, the overall graphics of both logos are essentially made up of basic shapes, and it may not have been easy to argue that a substantial part of the theatre company’s logo was copied.

“However, allegations that Sano had infringed other copyright material would have made it difficult to justify the retaining of the logo. The Tokyo organising committee appears to have done what the Japanese public at large would expect.”

James Sweeting, senior associate at law firm Lewis Silkin, said: “Debie didn’t have any registered rights such as a registered trademark in his design and the Tokyo organising committee and Sano deny they had any prior knowledge of Debie and his work.

“As copyright infringement turns on whether or not there was actual copying, without prior knowledge of the design, there could be no copyright infringement.”

Sweeting added: “Of course it is completely possible for two people to independently come up with very similar designs, especially when starting from a common point, such as a letter, number, or any other common symbol or image. The challenge for designers in today's connected world, where everything is available online, is proving that their design was in fact created independently.

“While the cost of developing and protecting a new logo, and the reputational costs, will not be insignificant, the cost of voluntarily changing the logo now will be small compared to the cost of a court demanding a change in 12 or 24 months’ time.”

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