[Infowarrior] - Lululemon v. Olympics (brilliant)

[Richard Forno]

Vancouver Olympics Unhappy With 'Cool Sporting Event That Takes Place  
in British Columbia Between 2009 and 2011 Edition' Slogan

http://techdirt.com/articles/20091216/0816517384.shtml
We've been covering how the Olympics has been able to get various  
governments around the world to grant it extra special intellectual  
property protection on certain words and phrases, with the upcoming  
Vancouver Olympics being no exception. In that case, you have to be  
careful of the use of "Vancouver," "Olympics," and even "2010." So,  
clothing maker Lululemon decided to come up with a line that mocks  
these restrictions, with a brand new line of clothing called:

"Cool Sporting Event That Takes Place in British Columbia Between 2009  
and 2011 Edition."

Note how careful the company is to avoid any of the restricted words.  
Nicely done.

Of course, guess who isn't happy? Reader Joe McEnaney alerts us to the  
news that, even though the Vancouver Olympics can't officially do  
anything to Lululemon, it has decided to try shaming the company  
instead, expressing disappointment that the company has "has broken  
the spirit of Olympic trademark regulations." Of course, even so, the  
Olympic officials seem to misunderstand what's going on here. They  
claim: "We expected better sportsmanship from a local Canadian company  
than to produce a clothing line that attempts to profit from the Games  
but doesn't support the Games or the success of the Canadian Olympic  
team." But, of course, that's not what's going on here at all. They're  
not trying to profit off of the Olympic Games. They're trying to  
profit off of the ridiculous free speech restrictions put in place by  
the Olympics for no good reason.