US Olympic Comittee vs Robolympics

Posted 25 Nov 2003 at 15:10 UTC by steve

According to Boing Boing, the US Olympic Comittee is not pleased with the name chosen by The Robotics Society of America (RSA) for their latest robot competition. The comittee sent a cease-and-desist order to the RSA concerning the Robolympics event planned for March of 2004. This seems odd considering the name Robolympics has been used by other robot events for quite a few years and no one seems to have noticed, much less sued over it.

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It makes perfect sense to me, posted 25 Nov 2003 at 16:20 UTC by The Swirling Brain » (Master)

With atheletes pumping themselves full of drugs and depending on technology to train them, and since it doen't seem to be true competition anymore just a robotic system of paid judges, it's no wonder the US Olympic Committee would want to secure the name "robolympic" for themselves. Also, wasn't Arnold Swartzenegger a robolympian? Apparently this sillyness of drugs and money has even created a new hyper overactive symbotic robo creature called the robo- lympic-lawyers. This phenomon has happened to other industries too. Ex: Music, Video, even Garage Door Openers.

Wow, talk about a publicity stunt, posted 25 Nov 2003 at 17:58 UTC by lnxfergy » (Master)

This might be the best publicity stunt ever, I mean what, are they going to sue the ancient Greek authors of every myth that talks about the Olympics too? And I am especially impressed in the fact that if the ROBOlypmics are athletic events, then my robots are getting more exercise then I am.

It's who has the most money, posted 25 Nov 2003 at 21:53 UTC by earlwb » (Master)

The group with the most money wins. If you can't afford the lawyers, then you have to C&D.

So has anyone..., posted 26 Nov 2003 at 14:27 UTC by earlwb » (Master)

Copyrighted or patented the "robot" or "robotics" word yet? I suspect we're violating someone's copyright, patent or trademark everytime we use the term.

Special Olympics, posted 26 Nov 2003 at 15:35 UTC by The Swirling Brain » (Master)

I wonder if they've sued special olympics too?

Yes, the special olympics pay a fee, posted 29 Nov 2003 at 23:27 UTC by Chuck McM. » (Master)

They were sued and they settled by "licensing" the term.

I agree its good free publicity. The event is a lot of fun generally.