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To: Fiji Hill
The United States Supreme Court addressed the Amateur Sports Act in San Francisco Arts and Athletics v. United States Olympic Committee, 483 U.S. 522 (1987). The Court upheld an injunction preventing San Francisco Arts and Athletics (SFAA) from using the word “Olympic” to promote the “Gay Olympic Games.” The Court concluded that the USOC does not have to prove that unauthorized use of the word Olympic was confusing. Second, the word “Olympic has not become generic, removing it from trademark protection. Third, there was no violation of the First Amendment because the Amateur Sports Act applies to commercial speech or speech involved in a theatrical or athletic performance. The Court noted that the danger of the trademark restriction resulting in the infringement of political speech rights was too remote to warrant a violation of the First Amendment. Further, commercial speech is entitled to less protection under the First Amendment. Because the USOC has the right of exclusive use of the words listed in the Act, selling T-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers, and pins all containing the word “Olympic” could undercut the USOC’s efforts to use, and sell the right to use, the word in the future, since much of the words value comes from its limited use. Therefore, the restriction on this kind of commercial speech is justified. -http://www.acluutah.org/olympictrademark.htm
35 posted on 08/10/2011 8:11:09 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay
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To: fight_truth_decay

All right dammit - then it’s the Oil-Limpicks - doesn’t some Redneck activity involve Wesson Oil?


36 posted on 08/10/2011 8:25:20 PM PDT by QBFimi (When gunpowder speaks, beasts listen.)
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