Watch your language!

There's a small family-owned pizza place in downtown Vancouver called Olympic Pizza. The restaurant has operated under this name for 15 years. Last year, the restaurant came under fire from the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) for infringing on the Olympic trademark. After public outcry and repeated statements from the family that they would fight VANOC tooth and nail for use of the name, VANOC backed down. The committee is now distinguishing between established companies and recent startups who make use of the Olympic name or other names that might confuse people into thinking a business is associated with the 'official' Olympics. Their intent is to put a stop to ambush marketing by companies who want to sell items with Olympic slogans on them without becoming official Games sponsors.

I've blogged about this before, but what's particularly interesting to me now is the kind of resistance to VANOC's use of the Canadian Trademarks Act that we're seeing from trademark lawyers themselves.

In a March 29th Vancouver Sun story, Jeff Lee writes that some trademark specialists and members of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada feel Olympic organizers are perverting the original intent of the official marks section of the Trademark Act.

Dan Bereskin, a trademark lawyer in Toronto, is quoted as saying, "The legislation that was enacted was supposed to benefit real public authorities that might have symbols or marks that were unique to them, and the imitation of which would normally be considered to be improper. I don't think they had in mind that so-called public authorities would get involved in merchandising activities."

Apparently, in the lead up to the Calgary Winter Games, the Olympic organizing committee clamped down on the use of "Calgary '88" on unofficial merchandise. I can understand the reasoning behind this. VANOC has gone one step further, outlawing use of the word "winter" in conjunction with other Olympic "trademarks" or symbols. But winter is a season! Or it was the last time I checked.

According to the folks at TDH Strategies, Stéphane Dion could well find himself in trouble for using some key Olympic rallying cries. All in jest, really.

Check out the Appropriation Art website for more info on fair use and artistic freedom.

The image of the Olympic crossword puzzle comes courtesy of Paul Conneally. Thanks Paul!