KickChick Posted September 30, 2002 Posted September 30, 2002 AP World Politics Monks of China's famed Shaolin Temple fight to protect trademark Wed Sep 25, 4:44 AM ET BEIJING - The monks of Shaolin Temple want the world to back off a little. And they're not the sort of monks you want to anger. The Buddhist temple whose name was made famous by dozens of kung fu movies is fighting — and not with its hands and feet — to protect the Shaolin trademark from encroachment by marketers with dollar signs in their eyes. "It is our unshirkable historical responsibility to protect and rejuvenate the culture of Shaolin," said Shi Yongxin, the abbot of Shaolin Temple, quoted by the official Xinhua News Agency. In recent months, the temple in central China has been making efforts to register "Shaolin" and "Shaolin Temple" as trademarks with the country's General Administration for Industry and Commerce, Xinhua said. It has also set up a firm, Henan Shaolin Temple Industrial Development Lt. Co., to safeguard the temple's name and ban its "abusive use" in commercial activities, the agency said. A survey by the China Trademark and Patent Affairs Agency in 11 countries and regions on five continents showed that 117 items had been registered with the name Shaolin — all without consulting the temple. In mainland China, more than 100 businesses — including automobiles, furniture, foods, spirits and medicine — are using a Shaolin trademark. Registration of Shaolin Temple as a trademark overseas has also been stepped up, Xinhua said. "It is in the benefit of Shaolin Temple for protecting trademarks internationally," Shi was quoted as saying. Shaolin Temple, built in 496, is the birthplace of Shaolin Boxing, a unique combination of Buddhist and Chinese martial arts. The militia monks of Shaolin gained notoriety during the early Tang Dynasty (618-907) by helping Emperor Li Shimin defeat a local feudal ruler who wanted to set up a separate government by force. But it was a spate of kung-fu movies in the 1970s — many of them starring Hong Kong's Bruce Lee and myriad imitators — that brought the martial art to the world's attention. Hong Kong's Jackie Chan, among others, has kept that tradition going in recent years.
ShaolinKF Posted October 13, 2002 Posted October 13, 2002 Interesting. Thanks for the piece of info `If you always put limits on yourself and what you can do, physical or anything, you might as well be dead. It will spread into your work, your morality, your entire being. There are no limits, only plateaux. But you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you.`- Bruce Lee
Red J Posted October 13, 2002 Posted October 13, 2002 I could see someone trying to open a drive through "Shoalin Burger" joint right next to the temple, lol. In business nothing is sacred, thus the monks have to go legal and trademark to protect the sanctity of their name. I had to lose my mind to come to my senses.
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