Winter Olympics Merchandise Trade Restrictions

Rules Constrain Vancouver 2010 Olympic Souvenir Marketing

Jul 18, 2009

Canada's Bill C-47 makes it illegal for non-sponsoring businesses to use terms including Olympics, Olympic Games, Vancouver 2010 and gold medals.

The official Vancouver 2010 website reports that 5,500 athletes from more than 80 countries will compete at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games from February 12 to 28, 2010.

With one million fans expected to attend and millions of other viewers tuning in to watch via television or the Internet, the Vancouver 2010 sports spectacle offers significant marketing opportunities for exporters and importers around the globe.

Souvenir merchandise items target specific Winter sporting events including ice hockey, skating, bob sledding and freestyle skiing. Types of merchandise range from Olympic team jackets, scarves and hats to souvenir plush mascots, ornamental pins and collectible coins.

Backed by the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Committee, Canada has banned an extensive list of Games-related graphics and words that cannot be used to associate the Winter Olympics with the business interests of a non-sponsoring entity.

Bill C-47

Canada’s Bill C-47 prohibits any commercial enterprise from applying a specified set of words or symbols pertinent to the Winter Olympic Games. Those words and symbols are now considered illegal because of their potential to mislead consumers who assume that a private business interest is endorsed or associated with the official Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games, organizers and sponsors.

Bill C-47 outlaws the following 3 schedules of images and terms. Businesses other than Olympic sponsors must avoid these graphics and words until December 31, 2010.

Prohibited Olympics-related Words and Images

Schedule 1 under Bill C-47 forbids the use of trademarked Olympic images including any semblance of its 5-ring logo. Also banned is a group of trademarked Olympics-related terms in French and English, summarized below.

Prohibited Vancouver 2010 Words and Images

Schedule 2 under Bill C-47 bans images and words specifically tied to Vancouver’s role as host to the 2010 Winter Olympics. Non-official commercial interests must not use graphics that resemble any Vancouver 2010 logo, or any of the following terms or mottos.

Combined Terms Banned during 2010 Winter Olympics

Schedule 3 under Bill C-47 provides 2 lists of terms that may be used alone or with other entries from the same list, but not with any item from the other list. However, terms on list 1 (Games, 2010, Twenty-ten, 21st, XXIst, 10th, Tenth, Xth, Medals) must not appear together with any term on list 2 (Winter, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Sponsor, Vancouver, Whistler).

Examples of illegally combined terms that must not appear in the communications issued by a non-sponsoring business selling Olympics-related merchandise are:

Protecting Olympic Winter Games Sponsors

The Official Vancouver 2010 Olympic Store, the Royal Canadian Mint and Winter Olympics sponsors are among the principal beneficiaries of Bill C-47. These protected partiers will probably enjoy a large portion of merchandise sales from the 2010 Games. This is particularly true of online sales that search engines generate, provided that Canada can effectively extend the ban to exclude those terms when they are used as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) keywords.

On the other hand, thousands of smaller exporting and importing countries around the world count on sales of Winter Olympics merchandise; they will be adversely affected. Particularly hard hit will be entrepreneurs who would otherwise use the banned terms to describe their unique products in online promotional copy and traditional hardcopy marketing materials.

The copyright of the article Winter Olympics Merchandise Trade Restrictions in International Business Regulations is owned by Daniel Workman. Permission to republish Winter Olympics Merchandise Trade Restrictions in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.