IOC Forces School To Remove Rings From Crest For Some Reason
from the champions-of-bullying dept
Have you thought about the Olympics lately? No? Then I guess you didn't drive past any of the tiny little schools in this itty bitty school district in the Poconos in Pennsylvania that serves a population of almost twenty-five thousand whole people, because, if you had, the International Olympic Committee is quite certain you would have been all, "Oh, look, that must be a school run by the Olympics for some reason." Otherwise, the IOC's pressuring the district to re-draw this district crest would make no sense.
You can probably spot the source of the problem immediately. It's those damned rings at the top-left, of course, and the IOC ain't happy that some stupid little learning institution could think that those rings could be incorporated in a logo. After all, the Olympics has nothing to do with learning, with a cooperative spirit, or with domestic institutions. Which is exactly what has me questioning why there is any trademark standing to begin with. After all, the two entities aren't competing in any kind of marketplace and the IOC, notoriously trademark-protect-y, has allowed the Wallenpaupack's district crest to exist since the 1970's.
Now, however, the IOC has convinced the school district that it must come up with a new crest. Quite unfortunately, the IOC even appears to have district officials convinced that the trademark claim is all super-legitimate.
“They obviously have a legitimate concern. It’s a trademarked item. We do have to come up with a plan of phasing it out,” said Superintendent Michael Silsby. Phasing out the rings because Silsby said an attorney for the U.S. Olympic Committee called last week, saying the school could no longer use the rings to represent athletics.No, that isn't a legitimate concern, even if narrowly applied to athletic teams, because there's no commerce or competition here. This was simply the IOC, through the domestic USOC, bullying a school because it felt like it. Or maybe the USOC lawyers found some downtime and decided to fill it up smacking around schools. Either way, nothing about this is born out of a legitimate concern.
The district is reportedly going to have students create the new crest, which is all well and good, but that doesn't remove the bile from my mouth over the USOC's actions. You folks must be so proud...
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Filed Under: crest, ioc, olympics, poconos, schools, trademark, usoc
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http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/43006000/jpg/_43006883_sean_stayte_416.jpg
:p
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The problem is that "Olympic," "Olympia," etc. are ancient historical names that have been in common use before the Olympics were a big deal. There are many people and businesses that have been forced to stop using the name even though their use was unrelated to the Olympic Games. It's just wrong to demand that they stop using the term.
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wrongness
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twits in charge
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It's a trademark. You don't use someone else's trademark.
If this is too difficult a concept for you to grasp, maybe ask your helper to explain it to you.
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Wow its an overreaching group pushing a piece of IP outside of its actual constraints.
Wow, you must have been looking in the mirror.
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They're not competing. There is no trademark issue.
If this is too difficult a concept for you to grasp, maybe ask your helper to explain it to you.
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Campaign to bankrupt the IOC
If enough people did this & combined it with a social campaign "crushed by the IOC", then maybe we can convince the IOC that they are harming their brand more than a school with some rings in their logo.
As far as the school is concerned I think its good that they are changing their logo. Who would want their school associated with such a corrupt & profit focused organisation??
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Re: Campaign to bankrupt the IOC
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The IOC and its affiliates must PROTECT their branding
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Enforcement is absolutely necessary
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That crest is ugly. A re-design is a good thing.
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Four (thats almost five) rings intertwined? That surely must be infringing.
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They should change it to be appropriate anyway
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Why can't the new crest just be the old crest...
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Isn't there a real argument here though?
I don't mean to be dense here. I just don't understand.
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Re: Isn't there a real argument here though?
For example, trademarks only apply to specific product categories. If I trademark my logo for a kind of cereal, that does not prevent someone else from using the same logo for sporting goods. This is a general rule -- there are complexities like "trademark dilution" than can turn such use into an infringement. As with most legal things, what is actually allowed or not can be pretty uncertain.
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Stupidity
After three years, someone at Leica complained that no one on Zazzle's site could use the word Leica. Thus, a TOS violation.
Such insanity. I removed all my products and cancelled the account.
Boycott nonsense.
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Playing the devil's advocate...
Okay, maybe these are different industries and the Olympics didn't enforce the trademarks and so on and so on, but the "moron in a hurry" will recognize the Olympic logo. Then, by extension, people may ask why the school is displaying the logo on their crest? Is the school a training site? Did they host the games? Then why would the school use that specific combination of colored rings?
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Re: Playing the devil's advocate...
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Idea for replacement of rings section:
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