Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics logo designer refutes plagiarism claims, but accuser isn’t swayed

Kenjiro Sano from Japan, whose logo was chosen for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, denied plagiarising the design of a Belgian theatre’s emblem on Wednesday. Sano’s design features a symbol resembling the letter T.

When the 2020 Summer Olympic logo was unveiled last month, controversy began to surface regarding its similarity with the logo for te Theatre de Liege in Belgium. Olivier Debie, the logo designer for Theatre de Liege, accused Sano of plagiarism and has issued an official complaint letter against Sano, confirmed a Japan Olympic Committee official at a news conference.

Appearing for the first time in public since the controversy started, Sano, who has won various international designer awards, said he was shocked and astonished at the allegations. He denied the plagiarism claims saying that he has never visited Belgium and most importantly, was oblivious to the design of the Theatre de Liege logo. The allegations “are completely untrue,” he said, adding that he had a very different concept in mind while designing the Tokyo Olympics logo.

“Designing the Olympic emblem was my dream and this emblem was made from my knowledge and experiences as a designer,” he said. He also said that his work was partially inspired by the original logo for the 1964 Summer Olympics Games and believed that this Summer Olympics logo is one of the best he’s ever made .

One of the IOC officials said that before choosing a logo for the Summer Olympics, the committee held a thorough screening process to scrutinise all the logos. He added that since Theatre de Liege wasn’t a registered trademark there were no legal issues involved.

However, according to The Wall Street Journal ,Mr. Debie remains unconvinced by Sano’s explanations, insisting that his copyright should prevail despite his logo not being a registered trademark.

“We live in a world in which images are shared. The Theatre logo has been on the web for two years. It can have been seen. The similarity between the two logos is striking,” Mr. Debie said in an email.

This plagiarism dispute is the latest in a series of setbacks already experienced by the Summer Olympics, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordering plans for the Olympics stadium to be torn up earlier this year after facing significant backlash over its $2 billion price tag.

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