Olympic Copyright Law to Create Hurdles for Local Businesses

1 February 2006

Olympic Copyright Law to Create Hurdles for Local Businesses

A new bill called the ‘Olympic and Paralympic Bill’ which is currently being read in the House of
Lords will seek to protect the Intellectual Property Rights of all associated Olympic words.

Words such as ‘London’, ‘Olympics’, ‘Gold’ and ‘2012’ will be unavailable for use by any business
or authority from now until the 2012 Olympic Games.

The Bill will grant the organisers of the Games strong powers to prevent what is called ‘ambush
marketing’. It will allow a total crackdown on any business or authority which uses the particular
words for their own purpose.

This move was partly inspired by events such as the European Championships in 2004. During this
event certain companies used versions of the official logo, without the rights to such, on
advertising material etc and as a consequence aimed to profit off the back of the event.

Whilst the importance of intellectual property rights cannot be overstated, and indeed the need to
protect the 500 million pound sponsorship deals, it could be argued that the value of the United
Kingdom hosting the Olympics is that it had a profound effect on the economy. Therefore, should it
be acceptable, within reason, to allow individual businesses to prosper from the Olympics also?

Jody Tsigarides