It doesn’t seem fair that shady Joe can make shoddy mugs emblazoned with the Vancouver 2010’s new slogan and come away with a profit. The Vancouver Organizing Committee recently released their official motto for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, “With Glowing Hearts,” and has proceeded to trademark the line from our national anthem. Such an action was made possible through the introduction of Bill C-47, the Olympic and Paralympic Marks Act. The bill, introduced by former Industry Minister Maxime Bernier, is an attempt to prevent unsavoury individuals from cashing in on Olympic fame.
Of course this isn’t where Bill C-47 stops. Use of the words games, gold, silver, sponsor, Vancouver, medals, tenth, 10th, 2010, 21st can be used as evidence in a case of trademark infringement. The general nature of these terms is causing concern.
VANOC is well aware that they’re essentially snatching up legal rights to something that is part of the public domain and has tried to communicate to people that they don’t have to worry about being sued for singing the national anthem before a hockey game. A news release on their website ensures that they “would only review the use of the motto if a business began using [the motto] to create a specific, unauthorized commercial in association with the 2010 Winter Games.”
So, the law is there to stop unauthorized commercial association with the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and nothing more. Rhetoric aside, something doesn’t seem right. Sure, VANOC seems genuine in their intentions, but so did Iago.
Artists are one group that might have reason to be concerned, specifically regarding parody and criticism.
Let’s imagine an artist, high in both spirit and malice alike, by the name of Pip. Pip, fierce proponent of the Olympics that he is, decides to have a little fun and depict the lovable Vancouver 2010 mascot Sumi on the corner of 10th Ave. and 21st St. in Vancouver complete with a speech bubble saying “Sue Me!” and a sign identifying the season as winter. Oh clever Pip, your ambiguous use of the barred numbers and hilarious identification of Sumi and Sue Me as homonyms will surely allow your work to be identified as little more than a creative masterpiece! After all, didactic art is nevertheless art. But will this fly with the new legislation? Can a claim at unauthorized commercial association be made? No artists will actually want to find out.
We have laws for a reason. We want to allow individuals to build up a name of themselves and be given ownership for their intellectual property. But at the same time, we have to be vigilant against the misuse of such laws. The freedom for an individual to slam the actions of transnational organization like the IOC should be just as important as one’s ability to slam one’s own government. As transnational organizations and companies get larger and begin using more power on countries (like the ability to have legislation created explicitly for them) a space for dissent is critical and in this case, that space is being encroached upon.