Domestic and international sponsors commit huge amounts of money for the opportunity to associate themselves with one of the highest profile sporting events in the world. The new legislation, promised by the Canadian government as an inducement to win the 2010 Games, lowers the standard of proof needed to obtain a court order to stop ‘ambush marketing’ – where a business that isn't an official Olympic sponsor associates itself with the Games for profit.
Industry Canada minister, Maxime Bernier, first introduced the bill in April 2007 to provide ‘special time-limited intellectual property protection’ for VANOC. The new legislation breaks with conventional trademark law by creating two classes of trademark law: one for the corporate world, and one for 2010 Olympic Games business. VANOC said the change in the law was necessary because otherwise it would not be able to act quickly enough under Canada's existing trademark and copyright legislation.
VANOC and all sponsoring firms can now initiate litigation, as long as it obtains the Committee's approval. That consent cannot be unreasonably withheld.
The legislation grants the Vancouver organising committee rights to the words ‘winter’, ‘gold’, ‘2010’ plus many others, including the name of the host city itself. VANOC argues that similar legislation was enacted for the past several Games, along with next year’s Beijing Summer Olympics and London 2012.
