REAL 2010

With less than two months to go until the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics are underway the organizers of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games are preparing for the counterfeiters to unleash their furry on this next event.

In anticipation of that furry they've launched a campaign called REAL 2010 encouraging fans, spectators, companies, etc. to quite simply buy real, genuine products.

In addition to this, VANOC held a three-day anti-counterfeiting training conference in Vancouver which was attended by businesses and law enforcement officers from Canada and the U.S..

The conference was run by Kestenberg Siegal Lipkus, a Toronto law firm, and co-sponsored by the Vancouver Police Department and the RCMP.

Fakes Flood Beijing

That's probably the most shocking statement of the year! Okay, maybe not. It's not really a surprise that the kingdom of copies would be flooded with fake Olympic memorabilia.

In contrast, since November VANOC has encountered only a handful of stores that it has had to monitor and in turn had to hire legal counsel from firms specializing in trademark protection.

So far no one has tried to fake the holographic tags that infer the legitimacy of Vancouver 2010 Olympic items.

Surprisingly, Vancouver's most famous Olympic brand infringement case against Olympia Pizza, a long-time user of the rings in its signage on Denman Street in Vancouver's west side is still ongoing, after 5 years.

Back in Beijing, one of the few places you won't find Olympic knock-offs is the place that is historically most famous for its fakes - Silk Road Market. The market struck a deal with the Beijing Organizing Committee and as such as a booth on the main floor where one can get the real deal. But step outside and you'll be back to the fakes you came for.

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