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Tourist guide has Olympic mountain to climb

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A humble guidebook has run afoul of the American branch of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on the grounds of trademark infringement. Titled Best of the Olympic Peninsula 2007: Vital Information to ‘DO THE LOOP’ Around Washington State's Finest Beaches, Rainforests, and Mountains, the book is published by the State’s Olympic Mountain School tourist information service. However, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) has ranged its legal resources against the guide for using the ‘Olympic’ name.

USOC general counsel, Kelly Maser, told the Mountain School: ‘Congress has granted the USOC the exclusive right to use and control the commercial use of the word ‘OLYMPIC’ and any simulation or combination thereof in the United States. See the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act.’

The USOC also hit the Mountain School with the crucial condition that: ‘You and/or your company agree to limit your use of the ‘Best of the Olympic Peninsula’ trademark (‘the Mark’) to the geographic area outlined above.’ This is despite the title’s specific reference to that very region, and a disclaimer on the guide’s website that ‘Travel services offered under the mark ‘Best of the Olympic Peninsula’ are neither affiliated with nor endorsed by the US Olympic Committee.’

Guide author Jason Baucher, whose exploration of the West Washington wilderness has been a lifetime labour of love, told the Vancouver Sun on 15 June: ‘Unemployment is very high here, and money could come into the area from tourists – both from book sales and from visitation. Yes, I hope to mail this guidebook from my trailer on Lake Quinault to tourists all over the world. If this is interstate commerce, then glory be! We need this here. I am not your problem. Nor are the other salt-of-the-earth folks here on the Olympic Peninsula your problem.’

Asked whether it was willing to pursue the matter through the courts, the USOC said: ‘That will be decided internally.’