As athletes from all around the planet strive for gold in London, there are a few lessons we can all learn about what it means to be an “Olympian.”All across the United Sates and the world, the term “Olympics” is one of the most aggressively protected trademarks. There is a lot to learn from the way the Olympic Committee protects their mark from dilution and infringement. Recently, the Committee was criticized for demanding a British butcher to take down his sign depicting the Olympic Rings shaped from sausages. Also, the domain owner of Ravelympics.com was made to change it to…
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By refusing to hear the University of South Carolina’s appeal, the Supreme Court ended a 13-year-old dispute over interlocking letters “SC”. Prior to this appeal, the Federal Circuit held the University of Southern California and not South Carolina is the proprietor of intellectual property rights in the mark. Their ruling stands. Trademark law protects identifiers of origin. Put more simply, the reason you know shoes bearing the “swoosh” emblem are Nikes and not something else is because of trademark law. Nike has registered the “swoosh” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office limiting other company’s ability to fool buyers…
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