Original Tokyo 2020 Logo In the Clear

(ATR) Designer of the Belgian theatre logo that claimed the original Tokyo 2020 Olympic logo plagiarized his design has dropped the lawsuit against the organizers.

Tokyo 2020 and the IOC confirmed on Monday that the designer of the Theatre de Liege logo Olivier Debie dropped the plagiarism lawsuit just two months after he filed it. The lawsuit was jointly filed by Debie and the theatre against the IOC in August shortly following the launch of the original logo by Kenjiro Sano.

Around the Rings understands the Theatre de Liege dropped out of the lawsuit on Sep. 22 before Debie waived the lawsuit entirely in October.

Debie claimed the T-shape that dominated the Tokyo 2020 logo used key elements of his theatre logo design. Although Sano strongly denied the copying allegations, Tokyo 2020 decided to pull the logo and begin the process of selecting a new one.

The IOC came to an agreement with Debie in October just a month after Tokyo 2020 opened up the design contest to select the new logo.

The IOC maintains their position "that there was neither copyright nor moral rights infringement and the IOC was looking forward to having the Court render a decision on this case". A defense hearing was originally scheduled for the case on Feb. 2. Debie announced in January he had no plans to proceed with the hearing.

Tokyo 2020 is entering the final stage of its second design contest and organizers are expected to select a design in the next two months.

Written by KevinNutley

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