Fake Mickey Mouse statues at the Beijing Olympics

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    A little over a year has passed since China’s fake Disneyland was exposed and forced to clean up its act, but high profile examples of international trademark violations seem to still exist in Beijing. With two weeks to go until the start of the Olympics, the Japanese press has discovered that Beijing has built fake Mickey Mouse statues to celebrate the games.

    Below is a news report from FTV (with screen capture images under it).

    Japan’s TBS news also covered the mouse statues, and in both video reports, Beijing residents asked about the statues believed the character depicted was Mickey Mouse.

    How did the local city government respond when asked by the press about the mouse statues? Pink Tentacle has reported the following (from the Yomiuri):

    When asked about the resemblance to Mickey, a spokesperson replied, “They have square holes in their ears. They are not copies.” The spokesperson suggested the statues are unique because they incorporate the themes of old Chinese coins (the square holes), the year of the rat, the Olympics and the financial district into the design. However, children passing by the statues were seen pointing and saying, “Look! It’s Mickey!”

    {democracy:275}
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