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August 26, 2004
Say No Words
WTH is this?
The U.S. Olympic Committee has asked the campaign to re-elect President Bush to pull an ad that refers to the Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee said on Thursday.
The ad has angered Olympic officials because they feel it hijacks the Olympic brand -- a registered trademark -- even though it does not display the Games logo.
So now you can't even say 'Olympics'? How exactly do you trademark a word that has been in common useage for a thousand or so years?
The IOC said no official request had been made for the use of the reference to the Games.
"We own the rights to the Olympic name and nobody asked us," Gerhard Heiberg, head of the International Olympic Committee's Marketing Commission had said on Wednesday.
How absurd.
Posted by Rita at August 26, 2004 07:47 AM
Comments
I've never even thought about trademarks before, but on the U.S. Patent and Trademark website, I found 391 businesses, activities (such as RN Olympics), and clubs that include the word Olympics in their registered trademark. Is there a short explanation for what the IOC spokesman is complaining about. Or, maybe he is referring to an international trademark. If so, why do we care?
Posted by: kenneth at August 26, 2004 08:23 AM
I don't know much about trademarks, so I can't answer that. I know that the IOC has been very aggressive in their protection of the Olympic trademark recently, but this just seemed ridiculous.
Posted by: rita at August 26, 2004 08:31 AM
I guess, from now on, we will have to refer to the Olympics as "The 'O' word."
The world has gone mad.
Posted by: Jim at August 26, 2004 08:47 PM
I agree. I only wish I'd gone mad along with it so it wouldn't bother me so.
Posted by: rita at August 26, 2004 09:03 PM