Most of the discussion about the Olympics has centered on the usage of the ring logo. However nothing much as been said about the usage of the terms, particularly 2008 Olympics and Beijing Olympics.

I donate to human rights groups that are critical of China, especially US Campaign for Burma. My store, the Ministry of Propaganda sells several designs critical of China's support of genocide in Burma and Sudan as well as systematically destroying Tibet. I say this to emphasize that I am no friend of the current regime.

That said I have avoided using the terms 2008 Olympics and Beijing Olympics because I don't want them to be flagged by CP's CUP. My designs are critical of the Olympics being held in China (see these designs).

If I change from 2008 Beijing Games to 2008 Olympics will the designs be flagged? I ask because Google Analytics is showing that I am getting traffic on the Olympics keyword.

Thanks!

It will likely get flagged -- the Olympics people don't mess around.

But the best way to find out is to send a note to CUP@cafepress.com -- they're the only ones who can give a definitive answer on the "flagability" of a design.

Only CUP knows... we can speculate, but you may want to ask cup@cafepress.com to be sure.

"Olympic" is a trademarked word. I know this because I had to take a design down a few years ago (and it wasn't even about a particular Olympics but used the word more as an adjective).

Here's the trademark database search by the way:
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=tess&state=rea1bc.1.1

FYI - Tess database queries don't save - the sessions time-out after leaving. So, you'll have to search each time - but suffice to say - it's well protected and defended.

And you're getting Google hits because you've got "Olympics" in your descriptions. Not sure if that's something to be concerned about, but that's the reason.

quote:

Originally posted by Scott Kirwin:
Most of the discussion about the Olympics has centered on the usage of the ring logo. However nothing much as been said about the usage of the terms, particularly 2008 Olympics and Beijing Olympics.

I donate to human rights groups that are critical of China, especially US Campaign for Burma. My store, the Ministry of Propaganda sells several designs critical of China's support of genocide in Burma and Sudan as well as systematically destroying Tibet. I say this to emphasize that I am no friend of the current regime.

That said I have avoided using the terms 2008 Olympics and Beijing Olympics because I don't want them to be flagged by CP's CUP. My designs are critical of the Olympics being held in China (see these designs).

If I change from 2008 Beijing Games to 2008 Olympics will the designs be flagged? I ask because Google Analytics is showing that I am getting traffic on the Olympics keyword.

Thanks!

Well actually I had a design which said "2012 London Olympics" it wasn't CUPed but having researched this, I have now decided to delete my shop. It seems the laws on this are so draconian now e.g in the UK there are summery fines of up to 20,000 UKP ($40,000) to violators. In fact you almost have to be specially licensed to even mention the "O" word.

Actually it's not unlike that scenario in the Book of Revelations where you have to have the mark of the beast in order to trade in the market place, and then it's the end of the World.

from http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20031215/0917223_F.shtml
The US Olympic Committee is hitting back against anyone who dares to use the word "Olympics" to describe some sort of competition. Again, this is going past the basic purpose of trademark law - which is to make sure consumers of a product (or event) aren't confused to believe it's from another company (or organization). In this case, the folks behind the "robolympics" think it's fairly unlikely that anyone is going to confuse their event with the international athletic competitions held every few years. In fact, they point out that the Olympic trademark only covers athletic events - and since their event involves robots, it's not an athletic event.

Actually according to this even the term "2012" is trademarked. see: Using the Brand ) Although this article may give a more realistic overview of the situation. (see: Merchants beware of unauthorised Olympic trading

However I would think the fact 2012 is billed as the End of the World, it represents the end of the Mayan calender, Galactic Alignment, the return of Nibiru (Planet X) and the ancient gods of the ancient Summarians the Anunarchi and it could be argued has a religious significance since some people believe it's going to be a time of spiritual transformation and possibly the date for the Second coming all of which are much more significant in the scheme of things than the London Olympics. I would doubt one could confuse 2012 with some poxy sports event. But I'm sure conspiracy theorists will have a field day with that one because it could be argued as an attempt to suppress the significance 2012 has to many people and is a direct attack on Chritianity bearing in mind 2012 is a date in the Gregorian/Christian calander so is tantamount to trademarking and banning terms such as Christian. We're living in crazy times.

2012 They promised me SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION but all I got was this lousy T-shirt

Artberry
UK law is much less favorable towards individual rights; your laws against Libel would be considered draconian here in the states, so it's no surprise that your IP law is worse as well.

The more I learn about the Olympics, the less I like them.

quote:

Originally posted by Scott Kirwin:
Artberry
UK law is much less favorable towards individual rights; your laws against Libel would be considered draconian here in the states, so it's no surprise that your IP law is worse as well.

The more I learn about the Olympics, the less I like them.

Yes that's true up to a point but there is something called the Human Rights act that is supposed to protect freedom of expression and religious freedom.

But trademarking "2012" does seem a bit beyond the pale because presumably companies who make or sell diaries and calenders in the UK could potentially be breaking the law by labeling their products with 2012 thus diluting the significance of 2012 and the games.

So maybe it will spell the end of the Gregorian calender in the UK because all the calender makers will have a date in court, except they would have to turn up on the wrong day just in case they incriminate themselves by having an illicit diary lol Obviously the Mayan's must have foreseen this thousands of years ago and were careful not to break the law.

It does kind of border on insanity.

Yes I'm beginning to hate the Olympics to. Ironically they billed the London Olypics as "The Peoples' Olympics" Still it kind of explains why the only designer they could find to design a logo gave them a badly drawn swastika. Says it all. lol

Actually this is quite an interesting case which gives an idea how well these draconian laws are actually being enforced and how unaware most people are of these laws.

No legal action on 'Olympic' book

This discussion is interesting, but I think it's pretty moot for these forums.

artberry, if UK law is like US, it's not the "2012" number that is trademarked, the numbers with that design style shown in the image is. And listing the elements of the trademark ("London 2012" and "2012") are normal procedures to clarify the trademark.

As for all the draconian this and that, I can live without making money off of the Olympics.

quote:

Originally posted by Teesed:
This discussion is interesting, but I think it's pretty moot for these forums.

artberry, if UK law is like US, it's not the "2012" number that is trademarked, the numbers with that design style shown in the image is. And listing the elements of the trademark ("London 2012" and "2012") are normal procedures to clarify the trademark.

As for all the draconian this and that, I can live without making money off of the Olympics.

Yes in practice there would probably have to be some direct association with the term "2012" and the Olympics. But I dare say that could apply to sports wear, even though the reference to 2012 might have more to do with running away from the apocalypse or from aliens lol. So might not be the intended meaning/association

Yes I can live without making money out of the olympics as well. It's draconian though because it impinges on the right and opportunity for members of the public to buy products which conform with their opinions and views regarding the Olymics whether positive or negative or politically controversial. It impinges on the free market on freedom of expression and speech of both artists and the public in general. That is bordering on totalitarian Fascism and an affront to the basic principles of democracy.

It's Particularly disturbing in the context of POD sites which make one off products because it affects the rights of the individual to express their political views which seems even more disturbing.

quote:

It's Particularly disturbing in the context of POD sites which make one off products because it affects the rights of the individual to express their political views which seems even more disturbing.

Nope, nope, nope, nope. The decisions of a POD has no effect on the "rights" of the individual. It only has an effect on the ease of the individual to express those rights. To quote Richard Bach, "We're all free ... to do ... what we want ... to do.... (there are consequences, however)... :-) "