Several amendments have been made to the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games bill following a debate in the British House of Lords Monday, easing marketing restrictions.
The bill no longer presumes that an advertiser using such words and expressions as “Games”, “medals”, “2012”, and “silver” is in effect guilty of infringing the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) copyright until proven innocent. Instead a court will have to decide whether or not the use of such words has been used in an infringing manner.
There’s another amendment to the bill that says the government now has a duty to consult the advertising industry before introducing restrictions on the physical location of advertising Olympic venues, and draft legislation would place a similar duty on the government in respect of any revisions it may seek to make to the list of protected words and expressions contained within schedule four of the bill.
The bill’s third reading is scheduled to take place March 14 but no date has been set for Royal assent, following which the bill will become an Act.
