Chemists Make Olympic Rings On a Molecular Scale

ananyo writes "Chemists in the UK have made a five-ring polyaromatic hydrocarbon and dubbed it 'olympicene'. The molecule is just a couple of nanometers wide and can be regarded as a little fragment of graphene. Strictly speaking, of course, the molecule might constitute an 'unofficial use' of the motif and land the scientists in court for copyright infringement."

Comments

Finally!

[WrongSizeGlass]

Finally, an Olympics logo that accurately represents how little I care about the Olympics. They used to be meaningful, but they've devolved into just another international political dog and pony show.

Re:Finally!

[Ol Olsoc]

They are still meaningful to the athletes. The olympians that I have met (all Team USA Track & Field) pretty much ignore the politics as much as possible. They just want a chance to compete.

Then perhaps the athletes can organize and pay for their own show?

I personally gave up on them when they started letting Pro Athletes into the games. Those Basketball and Hockey dream teams were the exact opposite of what the games should be. I remember how exciting it was in th e1980 winter Olympics, when the US beat the professional (foro all intents and purposes) Russians. Fast forward to the professionals today, and you can understand why the world will root against you.

It was a disappointment when they changed the women's gymnastics purposefully to favor extreme small size. It changed that sport from graceful ladies to little trolls on the mats.

Finally, the endless "gifts" for the selection committees, the frank bribes as in the Salt Lake City incident, the corrupt judges, and you have a must miss event.

The Summer Event Police are coming

[Anonymous Coward]

The Summer Event Police will be arresting them and locking them in the Twenty Twelve containment area under Stratford.

All worship our Penta-ringed overlords.

Trademark, not copyright

[bunratty]

Aren't the rings a trademark, not a copyright? Trademarks must be defended, otherwise the owner may lose the right to exclusive use of the trademark.

Re:Trademark, not copyright

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't worry. The IOC and their local corporations that sponsor the games and license the trademarks are nothing if not diligent in defending their trademarks. When the winter olympics were held here in Vancouver in 2010, much to my dismay, they scanned the city and sent out letters to any business that had any word like olympic in it that they were infringing on their trademarks and had to desist. Poor old Olympic Pizza. They'd been in business for over 30 years under that name but now THEY were infringing. The copyright laws even were amended so that sentences with the words or phrases with the following strings in close proximity were copyright protected to the VOC; 2010, olympic, winter, and a number of sports names.

Dog and pony show where the venues are selected not by whether the community really wants/needs/can afford to host the games but by how much swag the selection committee can take away from that town. Our city and the local taxpayers are on the hook for almost $500 million for the real estate blunder that started as the place where the athletes were to be housed. And I don't want to know how much it cost to truck and helicopter in all the snow from the interior to blanket the mountains deep enough for the events to be held. What a waste. It sickens me every time I see a sign still up boasting about how Vancouver hosted the 2010 winter olympics. If it weren't for family concerns, I'd move to Owl's Anus, Alberta. Sorry, that turned into a rant but it felt very good to get it said. If anyone reading this ever gets a chance to speak out against or otherwise block their city from hosting an olympics, do it.

Re:Trademark, not copyright

[Zorpheus]

They actually did in 1995, but without success. Just found this as a reference on wikipedia: http://www.autoevolution.com/news/audi-reveals-updated-logo-10315.html

Re:Trademark, not copyright

[anyGould]

I don't see how it's relevant, since the Olympic Committee isn't a profit making corporation, but is actually only a group who organise a non-profit event for the promotion of sports worldwide, right? What's a trademark if they're not actually trading in anything after all.

The Olympics haven't been non-profit in many years. (I'm sure they're officially non-profit for tax purposes, but not in the "we don't make money at this" sense).

For instance, between 2005-2008, the IOC (home of "Olympics, Inc.") generated nearly six billion dollars in revenue. And remember, the terms of hosting the Games is that you, not they, are responsible for any and all cost overruns.

There's plenty of reading out there showing the real reasons why cities and countries bid for the Five Ring Circus. (Vancouver in particular is a nice case study.)

They get the gold in the nerd olympics

[_0x783czar]

now can they make a microscopic torch and a nano bot to carry it?

Hardcoded famous trademark

[tepples]

As I understand it, countries that have hosted the Olympic Games have to treat the rings and other IOC symbols as hardcoded famous trademarks, with sui generis restrictions that parallel the dilution restrictions on famous trademarks.

Re:Hardcoded famous trademark

[NicknamesAreStupid]

In the spirit of competition, these chemists will patent the process, which will trump the trademark. Touché

Re:Hardcoded famous trademark

[camperdave]

The olympic rings were designed in 1912, not -775

Re:Category error

[Anonymous Coward]

To be fair, when their own enforcement officers can't tell the difference, why expect a little news article to get it right?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4342335/Olympic-ban-for-florist.html

Coca-Cola threatened her for copyright infringement over their trademark. It was said literally one sentence after another.

So I in fact think it is perfectly justified to *repeat* the threats of trademark infringement and copyright infringement as Coca-Cola themselves have stated.

Doubly sad

[quacking duck]

The first thing I thought as soon as I read the first sentence was that the Olympic authorities would be all over them. The second was seeing that the submitter had also thought the same thing.

Just another indication of how badly the Olympics have been corrupted--and how they in turn corrupt the IP laws of host countries like a cancer.

close, except the olympic rings...

[doug141]

interlock, instead of sharing edges.

Rather apt

[bazmail]

Rather apt i'd say considering so many of the athletes are chemistry buffs themselves. I care not a jot.

It's time to disband the IOC and reboot the games.

[aristotle-dude]

I think the IOC has strayed way too far from the original principles of the olympic games and it might be time to reboot the games.

We all have a responsibility to "vote" with our wallets and eyes by refusing to buy anything related to the olympics and to not watch the games. Stop the madness and save the original spirit of the games. The games were supposed to be about amateur sport, not money.