Websites ban sales of mascot products
Sun Jiawei
2005-11-22 Beijing Time
MAJOR auction Websites around the country have banned the sales of goods bearing the images of the five mascots for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
An official with the Beijing organizing committee for the games, said no companies or individuals have been authorized to sell such products online, and the committee is discussing what actions to take against those who sell mascot souvenirs without permission.
"The Beijing organizing committee contacted us last week, and then we posted a notice online banning the sales of such dolls, and asked people who had posted sales notices to cancel them," said Tao Ran, a manager with Taobao.com.
EBay China also issued a similar notice last week. Tang Lei, a public relation manager, said: "We welcome customers to report to us if they find that such products are still being sold online."
Tang said the company has been in contact with the organizing committee about the possibility of setting up a legal online sales channel for mascot souvenirs.
Earlier last week, dolls and other products bearing the Olympic mascots, such as the stamps, coke cans, and pendants, were being sold online by individuals, generally at below retail price.
There are only four sales locations in the city licensed to sell goods bearing the images of the mascots — the Oriental Department Store along the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall, a store in the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Shanghai Stadium and the Pudong International Airport.
While online sales of the mascots has been banned, several domain names related to the "Five Friendlies," or "Wu Fuwa" in Chinese, are now listed for sale online.
Domain names such as www.wufuwa2008.com, www.salefuwa.com, and www.bjfuwa2008.com, are listed online for prices ranging from 100,000 yuan (US$12,345) to 200,000 yuan.
"Those domain names that remind people of the mascots but were registered before the mascots were announced are allowed," said an official surnamed Sun with the China Internet Network Information Center. "As for those registered after the announcement, we're still waiting for the Beijing organizing committee's decision on what to do with them."
Officials with the Beijing committee for the games say they have yet to find any counterfeit mascot products. A recent inspection of the Shanghai Xiangyang Fashion and Gift Market found no mascot-related products on sale.