'The Indicator from Planet Money': Olympic intellectual property

While viewers watched the Olympics, trademark attorneys with the International Olympic Committee were watching online to see who is using or misusing their lucrative Olympic branding.

Transcript

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

The International Olympic Committee has a reputation for strictly enforcing its trademarks during the Olympics and the upcoming Paralympics. Wailin Wong and Adrian Ma of NPR's The Indicator look at how the organization safeguards its intellectual property.

ADRIAN MA, BYLINE: Our vocab term for this episode is something that sounds like it could be an Olympic event - ambush marketing.

WAILIN WONG, BYLINE: Yeah, this should be part of the modern pentathlon.

MA: (Laughter) Ambush marketing is when a company tries to benefit financially by associating itself with an event that it doesn't officially sponsor.

FERNANDA MAGALHAES: If you think about the concept of ambush, it's extremely subjective.

WONG: Fernanda Magalhaes is a partner at Kasznar Leonardos, a law firm in Brazil. For the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, she was chief intellectual property counsel for their organizing committee.

MA: Basically, her job was to stop ambush marketing. That meant making sure only authorized brands used words and images that belonged to the IOC. In the 2016 Games, those words included things specific to the host city, like Road to Rio or Rio 2016.

MAGALHAES: So does that mean that a bakery next door to the stadium couldn't have the word Rio? No, that's not a problem. But if overnight, somebody opened a store, and you have Rio 2016 bakery, you would be sure to get a cease-and-desist letter or at least a contact. And we did a lot of that.

MA: Fernanda says she and her team understood that a lot of violations were unintentional. So Fernanda says the lawyers would try to take a friendly tone and offer guidance with what language was allowed.

WONG: There are billions of dollars at stake when it comes to Olympic sponsorships. During the period covering the Pyeongchang and Tokyo Games, revenue from the IOC's highest-level sponsorship program brought in $2.3 billion.

MA: That's 30% of the IOC's total revenue for that period. Now, according to the committee, it keeps just a small portion of that money for its own operations, and it says the majority of the funds get distributed to national Olympic committees in individual countries and towards the development of sports.

WONG: Companies that aren't sponsors can apply for special permission to use these words and symbols. Beyond that, the IOC relies on a patchwork of international and national laws in individual countries to protect its trademarks.

MA: But that fight can sometimes feel bruising for smaller brands. Arielle Knutson is chief executive of Oiselle.

ARIELLE KNUTSON: We are a by-women, for-women performance running apparel brand.

MA: Oiselle has sponsored athletes for at least a decade. During the 2016 Rio Games, a Oiselle-sponsored runner named Kate Grace competed in the 800-meter event. In the lead-up to the games, the company used the phrase Road to Rio in a blog post about Kate.

WONG: Oiselle got a cease-and-desist letter saying it had violated something called Rule 40. That's a part of the Olympic Charter that applies to brands and athletes. It goes into effect a little over a week before the Games and lasts a couple days after the closing ceremony. During this period, even words like medal and performance can be deemed forbidden, depending on the context.

MA: That's, like, just using English words.

WONG: (Laughter) I know.

MA: Can you say shmedal (ph)?

WONG: (Laughter).

KNUTSON: You think you're being so creative, trying to string together acceptable language. And then you're like, oh, shoot - forgot that that word was on there.

MA: This year, the company is supporting American wheelchair racer Jenna Fesemyer in the Paralympic Games.

WONG: A couple of weeks ago, Oiselle posted a photo of Jenna on Instagram. You won't find the word Olympics or Paris 2024 anywhere in the caption. Instead, there is a winky face emoji followed by an American flag and an arrow pointing to the French flag.

MA: Here's hoping that Jenna comes back with a shmedal.

WONG: (Laughter).

MA: Adrian Ma.

WONG: Wailin Wong, NPR News.

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