Businesses To Be Censored on Use of Olympics

pitpe writes "The BBC reports that the proposed London 2012 Olympics Bill bans the use of words related to the Olympics by non-sponsors, including 'Olympic', '2012', 'gold', 'summer' and 'games', amongst others. The bill is aimed at ensuring corporate sponsors, who have provided £790m of the IOC's £2.25bn marketing revenue over the last four years, will not be deterred by 'ambush marketing' where rivals to the official sponsors try to take advantage, but businesses warn it could make it technically illegal for pubs to use chalkboards to flag up coverage of the Games." From the article: "The London 2012 website has already posted a warning listing a string of Olympic-related words and images that are off limits to all but official sponsors. And advertisers' representatives have criticised the new Olympics bill because they believe it will make it almost impossible for most companies to even acknowledge that the Games are happening without getting into trouble. "

Comments

Re:news reporting

[hungrygrue]

That already happened in the last ******* games. The BBC World Service had to block out their feed for anyone in the US if there was any mention of the games which cannot be named because they would have been infringing on the exclusive broadcast rights of NBC.

Not so easy in the UK

[Potor]

A large number of the pubs are owned by breweries in the UK. Only the pubs owned by the sponsor, or free houses not beholden to a chain, could use this approach.

Re:Ahh, Europe!

[kindbud]

Heck, even this "bill/law" would be too much for us in the USA.

The USA has had similar laws with respect to the Olympics for some time now.

The Olympic trademarks protected by statute (36 U.S.C. 220506(c)) include: the name "UNITED STATES OLYMPIC COMMITTEE"; the symbol of the International Olympic Committee, consisting of five interlocking rings; the words "Olympic, " "Olympiad" and "Citius Altius Fortius," and also the words "Paralympic," "Paralympiad," "Pan-American" and "America Espirito Sport Fraternite," or any combination of these words; the emblem of the United States Olympic Committee, consisting of an escutcheon having a blue chief and vertically extending red and white bars on the base with five interlocking rings displayed on the chief; and the symbols of the International Paralympic Committee and the Pan-American Sports Organization, consisting of a torch surrounded by concentric rings.

Not just trademark law, but a special statute protects the Olympic trademarks.

See INTA for more info about this, and of course, the text of 36 USC 220506 itself.

By statute, the USOC may file a civil action against any person if that person, without consent of the USOC, uses the Olympic trademarks for the purpose of trade, to induce the sale of any goods or services, or to promote any theatrical exhibition, athletic performance, or competition. A showing of actual consumer confusion, or even a likelihood of such confusion, is not necessary for the USOC to prevail. ... The USOC is also not required to show that an unauthorized use of the Olympic trademarks is occurring in connection with goods or services similar to those on which the USOC has previously authorized use.

Basically, the USOC owns these words and symbols exclusively, by Act of Congress. The UK is merely "harmonizing" with the USA.

England?!

[Bogtha]

Wake up. It's the UK.

England's merely a region within the country known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It used to be a country in its own right, but that was hundreds of years ago.

This bill is being proposed in Parliament, which makes law that applies to the whole of the UK, not just England.

Oh, and the UK is part of Europe, just in case there's any misconception there. Us Brits have got into the habit of referring to continental Europe as "Europe", so sometimes it sounds like we aren't part of Europe, but that isn't the case.

Happened in 2004 in Australia...

[CaptainPotato]

The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) threatened non-sponsors in 2004 (ie - Athens Olympics, not Sydney Olympics). I know of one case in which a student union (I worked there at the time) produced posters to advertise that it was showing telecasts in one of its catering outlets.

The posters were only on campus, but the AOC threatened legal action over them.

Stupid thing is that the official advertisers would have only benefitted as by having more people watching the telecasts, more people would have been exposed to the advertising...

Somewhat over the top, IMO.