The U.S. Olympic Committee, like many other major sports organizations, does not shy away from enforcing its trademarks. In addition to enforcing use of the words “Olympic,” “Olympics,” and “Olympiad” and any use of the interlocking rings logo, the Olympic Committee also enforces the use of names and years in the particular convention used by the Olympics (e.g. “Sochi2014” or “Rio2016”).  For example, last year the Olympic Committee sued an individual who had registered 177 websites using the Olympic Committee’s naming convention.  In addition, the Olympic Committee aggressively pursues users of its naming convention and other trademarks as hashtags on social media websites (such as #Rio2016 and #TeamUSA).  This year, a Minnesota company who sought to post about the 2016 Olympics on social media pages filed a declaratory judgment against the Olympic Committee in an attempt to assert its right to do so.  That suit has not been resolved and has instead been plagued by a recent procedural dispute.

Although the Olympic Committee may not always be successful in all of its trademark enforcement efforts, the Olympic Committee shows no sign of letting up. One reason may be that the Olympic Committee has more trademark protection under the Lanham Act than other organizations.  In fact, under the Olympic and Amateur Sports Act of 1978, the Olympic Committee has the exclusive right to use some of its trademarks even where another’s use does not result in a likelihood of customer confusion. This is different than other enforcers of trademarks, who are required to show that another’s use of a trademark (or variation thereof) results in a likelihood of confusion.  Since the Olympic Committee is not required to jump over that particular hurdle, it arguably has a unique ability to enforce certain of its trademarks.