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London Olympic Committee closing in on infringers

London Olympic Committee closing in on infringers

In an early warning to any business looking to illegally cash in on the 2012 London Olympics, a Dorset butcher has been banned from displaying an Olympic ring sign outside his shop.

The sign was emblazoned with the date ‘2012’ and five sausage ‘circles’ forming the distinctive Olympic rings. Despite being up for a year, Dennis Spurr was told to remove the sign outside the Fantastic Sausage Factory in Weymouth by Olympic officials, who explained that it breached copyright laws.

On Wednesday Mr Spurr swiftly made a replacement sign, instead putting ‘2013’ and adding five linked squares. He said this week: ‘I'm still a bit dumbstruck by all the attention it has attracted. It was never to promote my business. It was to celebrate the fact that we (Weymouth) won the right to host the Olympic sailing events.’

Meanwhile a businessman in Corby, Northampton has been given until December to change his ‘Lionheart 2012’ company name. Wayne Resnic is currently embroiled in a legal wrangle with the same organising committee, who insist he has infringed their trademark.

Lionheart 2012 supplies embroidered clothing to various sporting events and Mr Resnic has been trading under the company name since 2005. However, under the new law phrases and words connected with the Olympic Games are protected and ‘2012’ cannot be used by a commercial company who is not an official sponsor of the games.

A spokesperson from London 2012 said: ‘When we won the right to stage the London Games, the International Olympic Committee charged the London Organising Committee with making sure that the Olympic rings and Olympic terminology are protected in the UK.’

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