Comments on: International Olympic Committee Goes Copyright (& Trademark) Crazy

By: Olympic Stadium Photos (aka Red Heat) « TechBlog

Olympic Stadium Photos (aka Red Heat) « TechBlog — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:20:12 +0000

[...] So I was amused that the International Olympic Commitee has sent a “legal letter” to a photographer asking him to remove photos of the Beijing Water Cube from Flickr. [...]

By: CC licensed photos and the International Olympic Committee - Creative Commons

CC licensed photos and the International Olympic Committee - Creative Commons — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:28:04 +0000

[...] International Olympic Committee Goes Copyright (& Trademark) Crazy on The Moderate Voice by Joe Windish. [...]

By: DLS

DLS — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:27:04 +0000

Along with the development of commercialism in college and related sports events several years ago (“the Nokia Sugar Bowl”), followed by renaming of sports fields (later, openly in exchange for large corporate “donations”), I noticed and detested the “Official Olympic” phrase attached to everything that could be claimed to be such. In fact, when in later years some conservative activists wanted to put Ronald Reagan's name not only on National Airport in Washington, DC, but on at least one thing in every county in the USA, I joked to a very liberal friend of mine that instead, the activists should try to use the “Official Olympic” approach but replace that phrase with “Ronald Reagan.” (We also would joke about taking a trip in Ronald Reagan Washington, DC, down Ronald Reagan 14th Street to Ronald Reagan Constitution Avenue, past the Ronald Reagan Washington Monument at the Ronald Reagan intersection when permitted to proceed by the Ronald Reagan traffic signal…)

By: JeffersonDavis

JeffersonDavis — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:31:00 +0000

If I were Greek, I think I'd pursue litigation against the IOC for illegally using the name “Olympic” without the express written permission of Zeus.

Morons.

By: StockBoySF

StockBoySF — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:34:50 +0000

The Olympian “got there” first with their name. They should trademark it and then sue the IOC for over a 100 years worth of trademark violations. That should keep the Olympian floating in money.

This isn't the first time the Olympics has sued organizations over the name Olympics. The original name of the Gay Games was Gay Olympics until the IOC and the USOC sued them to change their name. I don't know how the “Special Olympics” continues to exist. Don't get me wrong, I think the Special Olympics are great and necessary. I just find it odd that the IOC and USOC are fine with “Special Olympics” but not the “Gay Olympics”.

As far as corporate bullying. This is sort of a David and Goliath story…. About ten years ago Amazon Bookstore (a feminist bookstore in Minneapolis which has been in existence for decades) sued Amazon.com for trademark infringement. An agreement was reached out of court and both organizations continue to operate. Amazon.com is now in the S&P 100 (it replaced Merrill Lynch when ML was bought by BofA last year).

Maybe Congress will trademark Capitol and ban photos taken of the building. It can improve national security too, since you won't have terrorists taking photos of a potential target, The Capitol. If this sounds absurd, it is. It's also what I think of the IOC attempting to ban photos of its venues.

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Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:49:07 +0000

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