Seattle Trademark Lawyer

No more rings. Olympic for Hire removes the Olympics’ logo from its cars

This is a small story (though broadcast here).

A local taxi company that stepped in it. They used the name “Olympic,” along with the Olympic Rings, to promote their service.

That’s not allowed by federal law. Particularly during the Olympic Games.

But the company has taken note, and removed the Olympic Rings from its cars.

That should be the end of it.

Hopefully it will be.

Yours truly on KOMO-4, proving once and for all that
I’m indeed a trademark attorney. And that it hit 74 degrees today.

Seattle’s KOMO-4 News interviewed me today about the Olympic For Hire taxi company (story here).

The company uses the Olympic name and logo here in town, presumably without the U.S. Olympic Committee’s permission.

I think these types of reports are good, because they help educate the public about what’s ok and what’s not ok with trademark use.

Of course, the USOC has few friends in Seattle. With hundreds of businesses proudly calling themselves “Olympic” in honor of our majestic Olympic Mountains, the USOC did itself a disservice when it bullied local merchants into changing their names two years ago when the Games were in Vancouver, B.C., 100 miles to the north.

Bully to them.

But here’s the take-away. Generally, using another entity’s name isn’t a good idea. It may not be fatal, but it’s certainly not a step in the right direction. Using their logo in addition to their name spells problems. And it means big-time problems if you use “Olympic” in your business and you add the Olympic Rings for good measure.

I certainly don’t condemn a business that doesn’t know the rules. But the USOC probably will.

Look for a name and logo change for the cab company in the near future.

Seattle’s “Olympic” Cab (Photo by STL) 

This time around, the Olympics are in London, not Vancouver.

Now, we caught our share of Olympic guff here in Seattle two years ago (see STL posts here and here). But here’s one trademark that wouldn’t have made the grade here in 2010, even with the festivities 100 miles away. There’s just no call for the Olympic rings, notwithstanding our proud tradition in these parts of calling most everything “Olympic” (in honor of our majestic Olympic Mountains, of course). Just ask Terri Welles (not perfectly on point, but you get the idea).

But then again, the United States Olympic Committee probably isn’t focused on these parts right about now.