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U.S. Business Cannot Tweet With Trademarked Olympics Hashtags

Individuals can

         

engine

11:55 am on Aug 1, 2016 (gmt 0)

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U.S. Businesses cannot tweet using trademarked Olympics hashtags, but individuals can, according to the United States Olympic Committee. Olympic organisers may have been trying to protect sponsors and added certain hashtags to the list of trademarks.

Eric Goldman, a Professor of Law at Santa Clara University, thinks the USOC approach is overly aggressive and ridiculous. He told us "I think that trying to tell companies that they can't use the hashtag #Rio2016 or #TeamUSA in their tweets, most of the time they're going far afield of what the law permits and when companies use the ambiguities of trademark law to try and squelch socially beneficial conversation, I call that bullying." U.S. Business Cannot Tweet With Trademarked Olympics Hashtags [bbc.co.uk]

tangor

2:22 pm on Aug 1, 2016 (gmt 0)

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This is one more "unhappiness" re: Twitter, even though it is brought about by the USOC, not Twitter.

OctothorpePhrase is never going to survive a Trademark challenge should anyone take the USOC to court over this. While a character can be trademarked, it can only do so within a set parameter and speech, even written speech used as conversation won't fit that criteria (IANAL, so this might be so much bug fuzz and be ignored).

Marshall

2:29 pm on Aug 1, 2016 (gmt 0)

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thinks the USOC approach is overly aggressive and ridiculous.
I remember when they went after the "Special Olympics" saying "Olympics" was a trademark. They lost as I recall. But seriously, where do you draw the line.

engine

3:16 pm on Aug 1, 2016 (gmt 0)

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Hashtags are not just twitter, of course.

Individuals cannot be stopped from using this, but unauthorised business should not use it as it may come back to hurt.

I agree with Professor Goldman

Shepherd

3:56 pm on Aug 1, 2016 (gmt 0)

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The real shame here is that (in the U.S.) the trademark office approved something like "#Rio2016" for trademark protection. I have had much less ambiguous phrases rejected.

graeme_p

6:34 am on Aug 2, 2016 (gmt 0)

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@Shepherd, you do not have the clout the Olympics do: the UK passed special laws to extend trademark like rights to them.