Rightfully, Olympic is a very sacred word and a very pure concept for the Olympic Committee as they have protected this brand and all of its related intellectual property components at every instance for about hundred years. However, the word Olympic as a name is geographic based on Mount Olympus and over the many centuries belonging to the public domain. Air Olympic, Olympic Limo, Café Olympic, there are dozens or hundreds of such names in use in just about each and every city of the world. The word 'Olympic' is overly diluted and there is no way any single organization, including the Olympic committee can claim exclusivity. However they can secure their claims in the context of the games, its logos and all the related symbology and special marks.
Dot-Olympic ideally should belong to the Olympic committee, if they so desire, but in a contest or any other situation the ownership of this name would simply become a question of going after a diluted geography based public domain name.
To hold ICANN responsible would be like suing Yellow Pages for allowing thousands of businesses to list under Olympic name identity. Olympic committee, rather than legal threats should simply apply for the generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) and hope for the best as outside the games it is heavily diluted to have any real value as a brand for outsiders. Once a gTLD is secure the Olympic committee can get real value out of it while the rest of hundreds of thousands of domain names and other marks based on Olympics will stay like any other typical diluted names. The secret lies in securing the gTLD for the games. QED.
By Naseem Javed, Corporate Image & Global Naming Expert. He is the founder of ABC Namebank, author of 'Domination: The GTLD Name Game', syndicated columnist, keynote speaker and specialist on global naming complexities.
Related topics: ICANN, Top-Level Domains
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Seems to me it would be more like suing Yellow Pages if it declared it was going to auction off the rights to be the only Olympic listed.
Olympic is a generic name, period, so it would be 'dot olympicgames' they would object to...we will not recommend any other business except Olympic games to go for the gtld… as outside the games this word has very little or no value
http://www.olympicair.com/Home.aspx?a_id=256 - a greek airline.
RMS Olympic was one of the sister ships of the Titanic.
etc etc etc.
So - yes, olympic is a geographic indicator.
However there's an explicit copyright for olympic - under many national laws (not just trademark / copyright law)
For example - http://www.acluutah.org/olympictrademark.htm states these are exclusively for the IOC and its affiliated bodies, per The Amateur Sports Act, 36 U.S.C. 380
* The symbol of the IOC consisting of five interlocking rings
* The emblem of the corporation
* Any trademark, trade name, sign, symbol, or insignia falsely representing association with, or authorization by, the IOC
* The words *Olympic*, Olympiad, Citius Altius Fortius, or any combination or simulation thereof tending to cause confusion, to cause mistake, to deceive, or to falsely suggest a connection with the corporation of any Olympic activity.
RMS Olympic was the ship and that's what we call luck....
What about the million plus using the name Olympic in trade all over the world…
"The word 'Olympic' is overly diluted and there is no way any single organization, including the Olympic committee can claim exclusivity. However they can secure their claims in the context of the games, its logos and all the related symbology and special marks"
You are right about Citius Altius Fortius and hundred of other IP items during thier events...I love Olympics as it turned out to be one of the best school for me for global image building when I spent several years in marketing and propmotion building up to the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics.
The operative word is "in the context of the games"
More practically, If ICANN does provide a new .olympic TLD, then any and every registrar and registry that is in the chain will face being a party to trademark litigation brought by the IOC, every time a domainer (or a legitimate non IOC affiliated organization - such as the Gay Olympics) registers a domain under .olympic that is anywhere distantly related to the games.
if IOC got the gtld the case is closed, if lets say you get it IOC cannot stop the use of Olympic EXCEPT in the context of GAMES are related items. The question is why someone would go for the trouble and secure this gtld. For what value or purpose?
"The words *Olympic*, Olympiad, Citius Altius Fortius, or any combination or simulation thereof tending to cause confusion, to cause mistake, to deceive, or to falsely suggest a connection with the corporation of any Olympic activity." 'tending to cause confusion'" you are right its use is forbidden in such wares.
Not sure about trademarks for which a specific law is crafted but..
Suresh, United Airlines cannot stop a million other users, all they can do is to protect their logo and marks and look out for encrochment on their 'wares' ie airline related issues… this is the reality with diluted and generic names all over the world. Whenever you see a major brand based on a generic or diluted name this is what they are doing.