It’s no secret that the Olympics seem to have a massive sense of entitlement when it comes to trademark issues — getting various governments to pass laws that go way beyond trademark laws in those countries to add special protections for the Olympics, barring pretty much any unauthorized mentions outside of press coverage (and even that’s a bit iffy). This is not at all what trademark law is supposed to do. Its latest move is to complain to ICANN about its new plans for a .sports top level domain, worrying that any benefits “are outweighed by the risks, harms and costs it poses to trademark owners and the public.” The public? Really? Furthermore, the IOC warns ICANN that it retains the “right to proceed against ICANN for damages resulting to the IOC or the Olympic Movement from the implementation of an unlimited number of new gTLDs.” Nice of them.
That article highlights that the IOC already has special deals with a number of big domain registrars blocking any registration that includes an IOC trademark — which is highly questionable, since registrations including trademarks are very much allowed to non-trademark holders, so long as the sites aren’t confusing to the public (for example, with “sucks sites” which are allowed). Hopefully ICANN stands up to bullying from the IOC which has no real case here, unless gov’ts keep passing special “for the Olympics only” abusive trademark laws.
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