Trademark Rights Can Trip Up Well-Intentioned Crafters With 80 days left (and counting down!) until the London Games, handmade Olympic merchandise - festive Olympic jewelry, London 2012 tea cozies, Olympic ring-adorned onesies, to name a few - is starting to trickle onto craft sites and online auction sites. But sports fans thinking of picking up their crochet hooks in the name of celebrating the Games may want to consult a lawyer first. Olympic symbols - the rings, the torch and yes, even the word "Olympic" - have unique rights over their trademarks, granted to the United States Olympic Committee by Congress. The back story: The Olympic committee, unlike many of its foreign counterparts, does not receive government financing. Instead, it relies on sponsorship deals and profits from sales of merchandise. But Congress did create a special carve-out in the 1978 Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, the law that gives the U.S.O.C. its specific rights. This was invoked by the U.S.O.C. last year in dealing with the "Redneck Olympics" in Maine. It is also used to prevent counterfeiters - or crafters - who commercially profit from the sale of unlicensed Olympic merchandise, Kelly Maser, associate general counsel of intellectual property for the Olympic committee said. "The Olympic symbols are among the most recognized symbols in the world," Maser said. We're among the most recognized brands, so when people are using those marks without authorization, those are clear violations of trademark law and the Ted Stevens Act. Working out of their Colorado Springs headquarters, representatives from the Olympic committee work with a variety of online storefronts to prevent the posting of unofficial Olympic merchandise, then reach out to vendors to alert them if there is a legal kerfuffle. The United States Olympic Committee and trademark lawyers walk a delicate line from a public-relations standpoint. It is easier now than ever for a grandma who receives a legal threat for knitting Olympic ring potholders to toss the PDF with official letterhead online and for it to go viral. "We try and take an educational approach," Maser said, adding that the Olympic committee tries to talk to businesses about the rationale behind the legislation, as well as a timely manner in which they can alter their branding. The Olympic committee has registered trademarks for "London 2012," as well as for past games (Salt Lake 2002) and coming games (Sochi 2014, Rio 2016). But the committee does not claim the phrase "the Games." Even though an Olympics may be taking place on foreign soil, the U.S.O.C. claims jurisdiction over potential violations that take place in the United States. The Olympic committee trademark cops field about 600 inquiries a year, not all of them infringement-related: everything from grade school requests to host mini-Olympics to potential investigations of large-scale counterfeiters. That intensity will only increase as the Games near, Maser said. Still, much relating to trademarks in sports remains a gray area, Marty Schwimmer, a partner with Leason Ellis in White Plains, N.Y., focused on trademark law, said. The International Olympic Committee essentially "is not a trade association," Schwimmer said, so its interest is maximizing its revenues to pursue its mission. "For the small-business person who is making these as a labor of love on the weekend," Schwimmer said, "they get a demand letter with the nice letterhead that asks for $150,000 in statutory damages, and it ruins their day." Editorial use of Olympic symbols, such as news outlets reporting on the Games, is typically fair game. We have to look at whether someone is trying to financially benefit, or is this an editorial site? Maser, of the International Olympic Committee, said. When people are cheering on because they're excited about the Games, we think that's awesome. But the editorial use of Olympic symbols may hatch open a whole new issue: parody.