Andy McIlwain (andymci) | The Blog

But let's not only pick on the NFL. The good people who run the Olympics have draconian trademark rules down to a well-honed science. From their guidelines to reporters:

• You cannot use an image of the Olympic logo larger than 1.2x1.2 inches or without explicit permission, and that logo can't appear within almost 6 inches of any other trademark, logo, or slogan.

Web site operators are required to prevent users from copying, downloading, or saving the logo; if you right-click an Olympics logo on a site, the site's owners are required to deliver a pop-up copyright notice along the lines of, "don't even think about it."

OK, and this is where it gets really good. When it comes to your site or domain:

The Web site, and its domain name and URLs for Web site pages, must not include any of the following or similar Olympic-related terms: Olympics, Paralympic, 2010, Games, Winter Games, Vancouver, Canada, Team (in English, French or any other language)."

Let that sink in for a second. The IOC is claiming that "2010," "Games," "Vancouver," "Canada," and "Team" (Team!) are covered by its Olympics-related trademarks. Rules for media are somewhat relaxed: we could, for example, use a custom URL to point to event-specific coverage, such as http://cnet.com/olympics or http://cnet.com/2010. (How generous.) That's only for the duration of the games, of course. But we couldn't say "http://cnetteam.com," if there were Olympics coverage on the page, because...uh. Team. Pardon my language, but bite me, IOC.

I am Canadian. I will be cheering on Team Canada in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada. Hrmph!