The Curious Lawyer: Olympics Law

Did you know the word "Olympics" and the 5 colored ring logo has exalted treatment in our legal language, finding super trademark protection by acts of Congress that have put the word and trademarks beyond the standards normally applied to all other trademarks? The question we explore in this program revolves around the power of Congress to privatize the word “Olympics,” rendering it unutterable by anyone else in connection with any product or public event, whether for profit or to promote a cause and regardless of the law’s normal consumer confusion standards. This general law program looks at the statutory language, the differences between the “Olympics” trademark law and the rest of the Lanham Act for every other trademark and word, with a look at the Supreme Court case law when an organization tried to host the “Gay Olympics” and SCOTUS addressed the constitutionality of the statute’s significant monopoly grant to the US Olympics Committee.