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Andy Kaplan-Myrth

Andy is an internet policy advisor with the Government of Canada, with a background in technology law and an interest in how collaborative and social technologies are reshaping industries, governments, societies and the world. See more from me at http://kaplan-myrth.ca.

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December 18th, 10:07pm 0 comments

Lululemon openly mocking Olympic trade-mark restrictions

You know how the federal government passed a special law giving the Vancouver Olympics special trade-mark super-protection for basically any words associated with the Olympics (including "bronze", "winter" and "Vancouver")? I wrote an early analysis of the bill when it was still working its way through the House. Well, Lululemon, not an official sponsor so not licensed to use those words, is instead openly mocking the restrictions:

We've been covering how the Olympics has been able to get various governments around the world to grant it extra special intellectual property protection on certain words and phrases, with the upcoming Vancouver Olympics being no exception. In that case, you have to be careful of the use of "Vancouver," "Olympics," and even "2010." So, clothing maker Lululemon decided to come up with a line that mocks these restrictions, with a brand new line of clothing called:

"Cool Sporting Event That Takes Place in British Columbia Between 2009 and 2011 Edition."

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