From a report by Argentina Star on Sunday 17th August, 2008, China’s counterfeit peddlers have been doing a roaring trade during the Olympic Games.
During the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, sellers are ringing up bumper sales to bargain-hunting Olympic visitors, though minimal attempts to crack down on copyright theft.
While authorities tried to run out some of the peddlers and prostitutes before the games, some of the best customers have been visitors wearing the official yellow badges of Olympic visitors.
Even counterfeit versions of the blue and white Olympic volunteer shirts have become fair game for the counterfeiters.
According to another report, China Olympic-related Spending Boosts Retail Sales by 23.3%. The Beijing Olympics, however, has triggered higher sales in the hospitality industry, with receipts at hotels and restaurants gaining 26.5 percent to 116.8 billion yuan.
A Chinese intellectual property official said the world is overestimating the amount of counterfeit goods made in China, and blamed "expensive" copyright goods for driving consumers to fake goods. In 2006, 81 percent of all counterfeit goods seized by the United States came from China, up from 65 percent a year earlier, according to U.S. government statistics.
