I don't know if it's true, but that's what is said in this article:
Claim on olympic mascotts intellectual property
Look at the photos!

i do not think that chinese would like it so much if you compare the chinese olympic maskot with japanese toys - and in fact, of course is not the same ... even china is the first country which need more then one maskot, i do not think that they will copy anything which will be related to such importand thing than the olympic games in china.

if you would like to have any discussion about the olympic maskot, you better try to talk about something like that: http://www.blog.china-guide.de/index.php...ry070723-172604

ok, i agree is not easy to talk about politic in such kind of public bbs - but i think is better to talk about something like that, then to compare the chinese FUWA with any kind of japanese toys - because in this point, you will have a lot of people who will hate you - even most of them are chinese

of course not - that there are some toys with the same color of course can happen, but this do not mean that china has made any kind of copy. i think to much people are thinking to much about copys and china - so they always looking for something. so i am sure the chinese mascott are not a copy of these games.

Yes, we could also say that the Japanese Keroro copied the Olympic colors...