New Olympic Guidebook Runs into Trademark Trouble

[dt_3pin]

 

Olympic Guide Runs into Trademark Tussle

Randy Boswell, CanWest News Service

Published: Friday, June 15, 2007

An accident of geography and the Olympic movement's zealous defence of its name have sparked a bizarre trademark battle that's outraged a Washington state wilderness guide hoping to alert tourists -- including those heading to Vancouver's Winter Games in 2010 -- to the wonders of the nearby Olympic Peninsula.

 

Jason Bausher, author of a new 64-page guidebook titled Best of the Olympic Peninsula, has spent his life exploring and working in the region around Washington's Mount Olympus, a scenic peak west of Seattle.

 

The bewildered but unrelenting Bausher, 30, is refusing to sign legal documents sent by the U.S. Olympic Committee restricting his use of the word "Olympic" in promoting his book and guide business. "I've worked too hard for this thing [the book] to acquiesce."

 

The committee has said in letters to Bausher that it won't stop him from using the name because there are exemptions in Olympic trademark rules recognizing the historic use of the word in the state. But it wants him to abandon his application to trademark "Best of the Olympic Peninsula," place disclaimers on marketing material, avoid the use of well-known Games symbols such as torches and rings, and to limit substantial sales and promotion of his business to within western Washington.

 

The term Olympic refers to the chain of mountains in western Washington capped by Mount Olympus, the surrounding peninsula that juts into the Pacific Ocean, to a large U.S. national park (where Bausher also works as a ranger) and to hundreds of businesses and charitable organizations in the area west of the state capital Olympia -- named for its view of the mountains.

 

Questions about the case to a committee lawyer were passed to the committee's media relations department. No comment was received yesterday.

 

Vanoc, the Vancouver organizing committee for the 2010 Olympics, has had its own run-ins with B.C. businesses, while the federal government has been criticized over legislation that provides the Vancouver Olympic organizers extensive power over the language and symbols associated with the Olympics.

 

 

Edited June 20, 2007 by dt_3pin

[catbirdseat]

The committee has said in letters to Bausher that it won't stop him from using the name because there are exemptions in Olympic trademark rules recognizing the historic use of the word in the state. But it wants him to abandon his application to trademark "Best of the Olympic Peninsula," place disclaimers on marketing material, avoid the use of well-known Games symbols such as torches and rings, and to limit substantial sales and promotion of his business to within western Washington.

They can stop him from using the Games symbols, but they can't stop him from the trademark "Best of the Olympic Peninsula", because that use is protected. The question is whether he has the money to fight it out in court. The Olympic Committee is flush with cash.

 

[jmace]

Pizza place next to my house been there for many many many years..maybe 20?

 

Olympia Pizza..they are making him change his name

 

Olympics suck the big one

[whirlwind]

thats soem bull shit. fuck the olympics thier in canada anyway

[catbirdseat]

thats soem bull shit. fuck the olympics thier in canada anyway

Czech your geography. The Olympics are in Washington.

[dt_3pin]

I advise all posters in this thread to edit their posts as follows:

 

thats soem bull shit. fuck the olympics® thier in canada anyway

Czech your geography. The Olympics® are in Washington.