22nd June, 2012
The IP battle in sports is swifter, higher and stronger.
Last month the use of colour of a car as ‘Olympic White’ was held to be a violation of trademark of the Olympic Organising committee by the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals, Russia. Earlier, the Federal Antimonopoly Service had ruled that ‘Olympic’ is a protected verbal component of Sochi-2014 (winter Olympics) Organizing Committee's trademark registered for several goods, including motor vehicles and the Moscow Commercial Court had ruled against an auto major which was not authorised to use Olympic symbols to advertise cars.
Britain, playing host to the 2012 Olympics is witnessing a proliferation of Olympic titles and logo. It is reported that from hairdressers to internet cafes, numerous local business could become liable for infringement of IP rights as enforced by the London Organising Committee.