Did the Forbidden City steal this logo?

Top foreign brands sue Silk Street market

Beijing's Silk Street market, a bustling bazaar of broken-English bargaining and brand-name knock-offs, is in hot legal water.

Five world famous brands, Gucci, Chanel, Burberry, Prada and Louis Vuitton, are jointly suing the market operator, Beijing Xiushui Haosen Clothing Market Company, and five stalls, for selling fake products. They are claiming 2.5 million yuan (US$310,000) in compensation.

"Though the market operator had promised to weed out counterfeit goods in the market, it failed to keep these knock-offs out," said the plaintiff's lawyer Gao Hualin. "The company takes no measures to fight against counterfeiting, and facilitates stalls in selling fake brands."

Xinhua has reported another intellectual property case in which a long standing Beijing institution is being sued:

Three designers, who lost out in a competition to design a logo for Beijing's Palace Museum, have taken the museum to court.

Zhu Yanyue from Anhui, Hong Qingqi from Fujian, and Xiang Baiping from Shaanxi are suing for a combined total of 130,000 yuan (US$16,100). They all say the Palace Museum's new logo bears an uncanny resemblance to their own designs, rejected by the museum a year ago.

Xinhua has also published an article titled "Chinese official appeals to treat China's IP protection objectively":

A top Chinese official in charge of intellectual property (IP) protection appealed Wednesday to treat China's IP protection with an objective and developmental view.

"China has taken a string of strong measures and has made significant progress in IP protection in recent years," said Zhang Zhigang, director of the Office for the National Working Group on IP Protection under the State Council, China's cabinet."

Well, alright then.