Belgian designer Olivier Debie who sued the International Olympic Committee for plagiarising a logo for the Tokyo 2020 Games has decided to drop the complaint, his lawyer said today.
"Debie believes he has won his case in the court of international opinion. He also knows he will not win substantial damages because the IOC has dropped the logo and he does not want to incur further costs," Philippe Mottard told AFP.
Debie filed his suit in August alleging that Japanese designer Kenjiro Sano plagiarised a logo designed for a theatre in the east Belgian city of Liege.
Amid a growing scandal, the Tokyo Games organising committee dropped the design shortly afterwards but insisted the move was not in response to the legal action and that the designs were different.
Debie told AFP at the time that the two logos were "virtually identical."
"When I see the Tokyo 2020 logo, I say to myself, that's the logo I created in 2011."
The Tokyo logo was based around the letter "T" -- for Tokyo, tomorrow and team -- with a red circle said to represent a beating heart.
The Liege theatre's design featured a similar shape in white against a black background, but without a circle.
