CP reports that the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) and the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) jointly launched a lawsuit Tuesday against a business using the Internet domain name www.whistler-Olympic.com.
The lawsuit was filed against Nikolaus and Ingrid Homberg, the owners of Whistler Olympic Real Estate, the company using the domain name.
According to a Vancouver 2010 press release, the lawsuit uses hidden Internet code containing the Olympic-related terms – “Olympic”, “Olympic games”, “2010 Vancouver”, “Whistler games” and “Olympic games”. The press release says the purpose of hidden code is to attract the attention of Internet users. Internet users searching for information relating to the 2010 Winter Games might be directed to the defendants’ Web site rather than a genuine Olympic or Olympic Games-related Web site, says the press release.
The law suit was initiated only after the registered owner, a lawyer named Nikolaus Homberg, stating that he represented “a group of international businesses and investors”, refused to agree to VANOC’s repeated requests that the defendants cease using the Olympic Brand and transfer the domain name to VANOC.
CP reports that according to VANOC, Homberg told the organization that his site gets over 1,000 hits per week and that he would require compensation before surrendering the domain name.
John Furlong, chief executive officer of VANOC said, “the lawsuit is part of VANOC’s ongoing efforts to protect the Olympic Brand. Our business is organizing the Games. We owe (it to) all Canadians to do our job properly to create conditions that will result in success for Canada’s Games in 2010. Any surplus funds generated by VANOC in its Games organizing efforts will be devoted to the development of amateur sport in Canada. That’s the goal we all want to achieve”.
