Shutterstock Photographer Forum :: View topic

vicza · Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 2:07 pm

Hi All,

Can anyone tell me (conclusively) whether it is a copyright infringement to use the Olympic Rings in a design to sell here on Shutterstock? Is the use of the word " Olympics " also copyright infringement?

Thanks
Vic

evaners · Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 3:53 pm

Both the rings and the olympic torch are copyright and won't be accepted. As far as the term "olympics", I don't see any mention of that in the restrictions, and I have used it as a keyword myself for some flag illustrations.

Here's a link to the list of known restrictions:

http://www.shutterstock.com/buzz/legal/stock-photo-restrictions

peteklinger · Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 11:38 pm

Yes, I can say conclusively that you can not use the word Olympics and you can't use the five rings symbol. (although for editorial you can use the word Olympics, when writing about the one and only Olympics)

The cases for the name are endless, Gay Olympics lost but Special Olympics is allowed. Redneck Olympics got taken to court. They also (no I'm not making this up!) Tried to get the Olympia Washington Newspaper to drop their name, and filed suit against a small business named Olympia Cleaners. There are many more.

Lets put this in short terms. The IOC is out of control.

kenny123 · Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 1:22 am

mauijon · Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 4286 Location: Maui, Hawaii

What about Olympia Beer? Have an Oly!

peteklinger · Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 11:56 pm

mreco · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Posts: 1146 Location: Hampshire, UK

Had to check for myself, as i found it hard to below the word olympics was protected, and here it is...

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ipinsight-200911-4.htm

EXTRACT

"The law

Most Olympic related terms and logos are registered as UK or Community trade marks. In addition, the Olympic brand is protected under copyright, design right, passing off and trade descriptions legislation. Protection for these valuable rights is not new, the Olympic Symbol (Protection) Act 1995 provided for a Olympic Association Right which may be infringed when the Olympic Symbol, the word Olympic, Citius Altius Fortius or similar words are used without authorisation in the course of trade. The London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006 created a new London Olympic Association Right giving LOCOG the power to prevent unauthorised associations with the Games. LOAR exceeds the usual protection offered to brand owners with more traditional rights and is infringed by any representation in the course of trade that creates a likelihood of association with the London Olympics.

mreco · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Posts: 1146 Location: Hampshire, UK

and hows this part for madness....

"The 2006 Act also introduces "Listed Expressions". These are in the form of two lists, A and B. List A contains the words Games, Two Thousand and Twelve, 2012 and Twenty Twelve. List B contains the words London, Medals, Sponsor, Gold, Silver and Bronze. Use of any two words in list A or any word in list A with one or more of the words in list B is not permitted."

evaners · Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:57 pm

wiml · Joined: 10 May 2011 Posts: 896

Just had two rejections related to this.

Please remove all keywords pertaining to the Olympic Games (trademarked)

I don't think this happened on my other Olympic shots but I do notice the keywords are gone.
Hopefully the images can still be found because of the title and description.

gianliguori · Joined: 16 Mar 2009 Posts: 99

The "Known Image Restrictions" link is not updated. Shutterstock removed many of mine editorial images from which contained the 2012 London Olympics logo. They sent me the following message (I don't know why it is truncated):

"The display count the days to the event begins.
(94196551) deleted because: Removed due to the restrictions of the 2012 Olympics. Restrictions apply to editori"

Cheers