This is what we received from the USOC:
To Whom It May Concern:
Please contact me concerning the merchandise you are selling at the above URL that features the Olympic trademark: CHICAGO 2016.
CAROL GROSS
United States Olympic Committee
One Olympic Plaza, Colorado Springs, CO 80909
719.331.8409
carol.gross@usoc.org www.usolympicteam.com
Our response:
CarolWe were careful not to use the word Olympic, the Olympic rings, the colors, the logo or anything resembling it. The entire premise is based on a parody that raises money for a worthy cause, The Hundred Club of Chicago. That fine organization provides assistance for the surviving spouses and dependents of firefighters, police officers and paramedics that are killed in the line of duty. You can read more about them at http://100clubchicago.org/
We are not affiliated with The Hundred Club of Chicago but strongly support their work. We also support the brave men and women who put their lives on the line every day so that we can all be safe.
Chalkie
Back to us:
Dear Chalkie,
I appreciate the good work you do and your efforts to honor and support the Hundred Club. Unfortunately, by using the mark CHICAGO 2016, you are creating an unauthorized correlation between your fundraising activities and the Olympic Movement. The USOC has a well established practice of registering trademark sequences that include venue cities and year components. Therefore, the mark CHICAGO 2016 is also covered under our legislation, making your use of that city/year mark unauthorized. The fact that it is being used commercially to raise funds without USOC oversight or permission places your use squarely in violation of our legislation.
I restate my request that you select an alternative mark that does not feature the intellectual property of the USOC.
Respectfully,
18 comments:
It seems to me a "," between Chicago and 2016 would take care of this problem; no more "violation" of the claimed trademark. I would hate to see Chalkie go the way of the dodo.
"Chalkie Wins Gold In 2016", do you think they have trademarked THAT?
Let's make it "Chicago in the year 2016"
Chalkie must survive.
If you must change the wording, could you just add "Chalkie" somewhere?
Or flip it around to 2016 Chicago. There's got to be a way around this.
how about changing it to "shitcago 2016" or "chitcago 2016" or "chitown 2016". sounds like this issue could really bring a lot of attention to the blog.....
This is ridiculous. I won't be making donations to the USOC anymore!
Maybe you can change the t-shirt to "2016 Chicago"?
Read the section about fair use here --
http://www.eff.org/issues/
bloggers/legal/liability/IP
They're lawyers, but there are such things as good lawyers.
Good luck.
tell them thats the year we expect the Cubs to win a World Series.
Use roman numerals. Most of society are unaware what "X,L,C,I,V,M" stand for. As for referring to Chicago, how about Urbs en Horto? Talk about Olympics, bring it back to Latin.
I'm sure you can work with this. Please make it work.
How about "Chicago Chalkie 2016"
Hey, I think your famous enough...
How about just droppping Chicago and add the question mark... 2016?? over Chalkie...
If you can screen it without a huge cost factor, you can run underneath Chalkie something like a strip of "Chicago Police Line Do Not Cross"
I checked trademarks and copywrites at http://www.copyright.gov and http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm and Chicago 2016 does not come up.
Chalkie 20 6TEEN
you sould do like the good folks in prision....Chicago T.P. (20.16)
I didn't know the USOC could create their OWN legislation. Are they dictators that declare their own laws?
WTH, I don't think they make their own arguments clear.
The 100 Club is also reachable at http://100clubchicago.org/ -- more logical than the .com address given that they're a noncommercial organization.
Man, I hope nothing exciting happens in Chicago in 2016, or they're gonna get sued by the USOC.
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