Stand firm, Harold Brooks.
The Hebron man is braced for an Olympic-sized fight over his use of the word “Olympics.”
Brooks hosted 2,000 visitors to his property for Maine’s original Redneck Olympics last weekend. It was a northern-style hootenanny of bobbing for pigs’ feet, toilet-seat horseshoes, pie eatin’, lawnmower racin’ and mechanical bull ridin’.
It was, as Brooks had planned, pure fun and frolic.
But, as Brooks found out, the fun and frolicking was over Monday when he received a call from a legal representative of the U.S. Olympic Committee warning him to stop using the word “Olympics” in his event, or face a lawsuit. Brooks was told the committee has “exclusive rights” to the name in the U.S.
Say what?
The committee has exclusive use of the name Olympics?
Not so.
There’s an Olympic National Park in Washington, near the Olympic Mountains and Olympic Peninsula, which is also probably near Olympic Hot Springs Road.
Abcteach.com, an online resource for educators to download lesson plans, has a package called Classroom Olympics, complete with Olympic medals.
Then there’s Dolphin Olympics 2, offered by Rawkins Games, in which players have free access to Web games “involving fast dolphins, crazy tricks, space travel, fish and global competition.”
Montgomery County in Pennsylvania offers its students Reading Olympics, a reading contest where prizes are awarded. Sounds a lot like the other Olympics, without the perspiration.
There’s a Philippines-based band called the Moscow Olympics, which sold out its “Still 7” album last year, with sales in the United States.
What about Olympic Paint and Stain products, sold by Pittsburgh-based PPG Industries, including Olympic Maximum, Olympic One and Olympic Premium? In addition to a wide palate of color options, the products’ trademark looks quite a lot like a flaming torch — a la the Olympic Flame.
Clearly, the Olympic name is widely used for commercial, educational, artistic and geographical purposes in the United States. So, why pick on Brooks?
Then there’s the Olympics’ interlocking-ring symbol, which has got to be as recognizable as the “Olympics” name, but the Olympic Committee doesn’t seem to mind the symbol being used by any and all.
We have to wonder how many people walking the planet — athletes and fans — are sporting Olympic five-ring tattoos, an art purchase so common that it was described during the Beijing games as the longest lasting souvenir of the summer event.
The Olympic Committee has a clear responsibility to protect its franchise, so, for instance, licensing restrictions on footage of the games is reasonable and understandable.
Claiming sole use of a single word — a word the Olympic Committee itself borrowed from the ancient Greek city of Olympia — is not.
Brooks may be a redneck, but he shouldn’t become a patsy.
jmeyer@sunjournal.com
The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and editorial board.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
