The New York Times reports that the Canadian government recently introduced legislation that breaks with conventional trademark law and would grant Vancouver 2010 rights to a long list of common words, including “winter”, “gold”, “silver”, “medals”, “sponsor”, “games”, “21st”, and “2010”, as well as the name of Vancouver, the host city. The law would expire in 2010.
The move is to avoid any chance of sports-themed advertising or “ambush campaigns” during the Olympics by companies that are not Olympic sponsors, something the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been trying to stop.
According to the newspaper the legislation would also give the committee special enforcement powers.
While other countries have passed similar legislation, the plan has met with criticism in Canada.
Under the proposed law marketers would infringe on the new trademarks only if they used the protected words in certain combinations such as “gold medals” or “Vancouver 2010”.
Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa who first criticized the proposed law, called it highly problematic. He said, “it creates the prospect of a David and Goliath fight over free speech”.
Doug Clark, the director of patent police at Industry Canada, said the measures are part of a Canadian government promise to the IOC “to ensure protection for the Olympic brand and to prevent ambush advertising”.
According to the newspaper the law would also allow the organizing committee, a private group, to act like a government agency when it comes to enforcement. That means it would be able to obtain a court injunction without proving that an infringement of its trademark, for, say “winter Games”, has caused it “undue harm”.
Scott Brison, a member of the opposition Liberal Party, reportedly said he would seek to modify the bill, particularly focusing on its inclusion of common words. He said, “generally we support protecting the Olympic brand. But we are concerned that any proposed remedy is absolutely defensible and does not unduly compromise the rights of citizens and individual businesses.”
