The Tragedy of Copyright Infringement
January 11, 2008 by daranee
Where I live in Washington State, there is a beautiful mountain range called the Olympic Mountains. The pennisula where these mountains are located is called the Olympic Pennisula. In addition, our capital is Olympia.
But for some reason the U.S. Olympic Committee feels they own the word Olympic despite the fact that according to Wikipedia:
Mount Olympus is a popular mountain name. Apart from the Greek Olympus, there was a mountain of the same name in ancient Phrygia and also currently one in Cyprus, one in Utah, one in Washington, one in San Francisco, CA, on Mars, and many others.
The USOC has notified Olympic Cellars Winery, located on the Olympic Pennisula, that:
“The USOC protects its marks and terminology because they help raise money through official sponsorships and other corporate partners,” said spokesman Darryl Seibel.
“In no way are we trying to impede the ability of this company to sell their wine locally and within Western Washington,” he said. “
So a winery cannot sell outside their own state because someone might confuse Olympic Wine Sellers with the organization that coordinates an international sports event.
This insanity must stop.
Its only a matter of time till the Martians get sued….
Olympic Cellars is not alone. Check out what happened to me with my little book called “Best of the Olympic Peninsula 2007: Vital Information to “Do The Loop” Around Washington State’s Finest Beaches, Rainforests, and Mountains” at http://www.olympicmountainschool.com/olympic.htm. Articles and editorials from Ottawa to Victoria and from Indiana to California document the USOC’s crack-down on my little book and VANOC’s (committee organizing 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, BC) trademarking of words like “winter,” “sponsor,” “gold,” “2010,” and more. Control words to control ideas. Control ideas to control actions. All legal.
-Jason Bausher (Quinault)