Posts Tagged: "Olympics"

Updates to Olympic Charter Rule 40: Impact of Name, Image, Likeness Changes for Tokyo Games

“Name, Image, Likeness” rights, the term commonly used to designate rights covered under right of publicity law, has been a popular and trending term thus far in 2021, and a hotly debated topic in the world of sports. With the Supreme Court’s ruling in NCAA v. Alston, multiple states enacting Name, Image, Likeness statutes, and the recent decision by the NCAA to suspend all Name, Image, Likeness rules for incoming and current athletes, this year is promising to reshape the advertising and sponsorship landscape for current U.S. college athletes and recruits. However, the controversies surrounding this subsection of intellectual property (IP) Law are not new to sports, and they are not unique to college athletes. For years, Olympic athletes have fought against Name, Image, Likeness restrictions set forth in the Olympic Charter and imposed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

PUMA TOKYO 2021: Legitimate Mark or False Association with the Olympic Games?

What comes to mind when you read these city/year combinations: London 2012. Sochi 2014. Sydney 2000. Did you immediately think of the Olympics? The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and its Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) believe you did. In 1999, the Board held that the primary significance of “Sydney 2000” is a reference to the Olympics held in Sydney, Australia in 2000 and affirmed the USPTO’s refusal to register a Sydney 2000 mark because the mark falsely suggested a connection with the Olympics. In re Urbano, 51 U.S.P.Q.2d 1776 (T.T.A.B. 1999). Thus, the mark violated Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. §1052(a), and was not registrable. More than two decades later, the same question is before a federal district court in Colorado, home to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC). The sports apparel and equipment company PUMA SE filed applications in the USPTO to register trademarks consisting of its PUMA mark combined with cities and years for which Olympic Games will be held: PUMA TOKYO 2021, PUMA BEIJING 2022 and PUMA PARIS 2024, for bags, clothing and sports equipment. When the USPTO refused registration of each application based on likelihood of confusion and false connection with the USOPC’s TOKYO 2020, BEIJING 2022 and PARIS 2024 marks, PUMA initiated cancellation proceedings against the USOPC’s trademarks.

How Do Musical Artists Get Paid When Skaters Use Their Songs at the Olympics?

The somewhat jarring Olympics tradition of juxtaposing athleticism and grace with instrumental versions of popular songs you might hear in the grocery store came to an end in Pyeongchang. After the Sochi games in 2014, the International Skating Union (ISU) decided to shake things up (or shake it off, Taylor Swift?) and began allowing skating to music with lyrics. This is not at all surprising given the demographics of the skaters, who are much more likely to enjoy “Single Ladies” than “Clair de Lune.” Pleasing Generation Z and millennial skaters, however, was not the main goal of the rule change; rather, the ISU wanted to appeal to younger audiences who tune in to watch the Olympics and other major figure skating events.

Olympics and Intellectual Property: What Brands Need to Know

“The purpose of Rule 40 is to prevent over-commercialization of the games and to protect the exclusivity of the official sponsors, who spend many millions of dollars to market during the Olympics,” she explained. “So, there was a blackout period (Feb 1- Feb 28 this year) where brands who sponsor athletes, but are not official Olympic sponsors cannot run ads featuring their athletes or even wish them good luck/congrats on social media.”

Howard Head’s innovative sporting goods revolutionize skiing and tennis for amateurs and pros alike

Among the 2017 inductees into the National Inventors Hall of Fame is Howard Head, the inventor of both the laminate ski as well as the oversized tennis racket. Sunday, September 10th, marked the 42nd anniversary of the filing date for one of two patents for which Head has been inducted, affording us an opportunity to look back at the innovative contributions to sports from an engineer who just couldn’t stand his own poor athleticism.