Olympic Logo Getting Trashed

By: FreFee | Apr 8, 2008 |  1

Categories: Human & Civil Rights

Have you seen what’s been going on with the Olympic logo and Tibet? Talk about the new battle between mass media and trademark law.

http://www.torchrelaybeijing2008.org/

I saw this animation on the news yesterday, so the big networks aren’t afraid to show it. Guess the IOC wouldn’t have enough lawyers to go after everyone, but this is really powerful and in-your-face, and it’s doing a lot of damage.

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Hey FreFee… You beat us to this one since I also saw it yesterday on the news. Seems the torch is all over the front pages these days.

We’re trying to track down who did the animation, but it looks like it’s by Free Range Studios, who also worked on The Story of Stuff, which you can find on our Home Page and Forum. They do great work, but if it’s them, this is certainly the most controversial we’ve seen.

We’ll soon have the 2010 Winter Olympics here in Vancouver, and I’ve seen some of the trademark usage rules put out by the IOC. They’re pretty strict and I wouldn’t be suprised if they go after this one because it violates every rule in the book, including the rings, which are the most sensitive and protected element.

Of course the IOC doesn’t have the funds and Pitbull lawyers of say a Chevron or a Monsanto, but it will be interesting to see what their reaction is to all of the anti-Olympic activism that is taking place. You can’t tell us they didn’t know it was going to happen… yet on second thought, maybe some of those IOC members are so wrapped up in the ‘glory’ of sport that they fail to see what’s happening in the rest of the world.

At Artevist, we’re trying to take the high-ground on trademark infringement, by suggesting that trademark elements such as logos and slogans not be used in designs. That’s because many of our artists work with trademarks everyday in their work, and as graphic arts professionals it just seems ‘ethical’ to respect them. We would expect the same of our own art. having said that, we’ll let some designs go through because of their design quality and thoughtfulness. There are a couple up now. Whether we would actually produce them remains to be seen as it’s something we’ll just play-by-ear and evaluate over time.

By: EricW
posted: April 08, 2008 at 04:28 PM