London mayor Boris Johnson has warned of the “insanity” of overzealous policing of Olympic brands as organisers step up efforts to banish the unauthorised use of words and images associated with the games.
With less than a week to the opening ceremony, the so-called “Olympics brand police”, made up of a team of lawyers and enforcement officers, are on a high state of alert to clamp down on small businesses using words such as “Olympic”, “2012” “London”, “medals” and “gold”, and the use of the Olympic rings, in promotional material.
Mr Johnson called for the light-touch use of laws enacted to protect the rights of domestic sponsors, which contributed £720m to the London organising committee, as well as the International Olympic Committee’s global sponsors. It emerged this week that even the family of Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, had been told to make minor changes to Olympic references on the website of their business, which sells party products.