China Seeks to Name Asteroid After Copyrighted Taikonaut (BBC)

April 1, 2004

According to the BBC, “A Chinese observatory is hoping to give the ultimate accolade to the country’s first man in space, Yang Liwei, after proposing to name an asteroid after the 38-year-old fighter pilot.”

In an interesting twist on Chinese intellectual property law, “his image, name and signature have also been copyrighted by Beijing’s space authorities to stop unofficial profiting from his success.”