Tuesday, 28 February 2012

Feast or famine: the London Olympics loom large

Will there be any crumbs left ...?
The London Olympics 2012 take place from 27 July to 12 August 2012. Around 1,000 events will be held and the organisers expect an estimated attendance of 10 million. From an intellectual property point of view, the myriad issues involving licensing of Olympic words and images, sponsorship, ambush marketing and the like have been well explored.

All in all, London 2012 is a massive cake and the biggest slices have already gone to major businesses and massive law firms. But can small and solo IP practitioners expect to get any crumbs at all from this gigantic sportfest? The sale of fake tickets and Olympic merchandise, and the carrying on of sundry other illegal activities, is likely to generate a bit of work for those with criminal practices but, it seems to me, the experience of most small IP practices is firmly entrenched in the civil side of life.

Have SOLO IP readers made any contingency plans for the Olympic fortnight? Possibilities include the following:

  • Alerting local Chamber of Commerce, Rotary contacts etc to the importance of IP and your experience in the field;
  • Hiring a decent TV for the duration and installing it conveniently in your office in case things get quiet;
  • Shut up shop and attend some events;
  • Leave the country till things get back to normal.

Any other suggestions?

Cake illustration by Blue Fairy Cakes
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4 comments:

  1. Mario Subramaniam28 February 2012 at 12:51

    I think you forgot "buy a British flag and hang it prominently in your reception."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous28 February 2012 at 14:41

    If you want cakes from an IP expert (patent attorney) try www.canterburycakes.co.uk

    The Kat could possibly do a 'piece' on this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jeremy29 February 2012 at 12:40

    I don't know the identity of the person who sought to post the following somewhat sarcastic message: "Surprise, surprise! A comment advertising another cake maker doesn't get posted".

    That person should know that (i) SOLO IP moderates all comments, which are held until someone comes around to moderate them and that (ii) the blog is not actually monitored 24/7; (iii) the earlier post did not appear in the list of comments awaiting moderation since, unlike the later post, it was diverted by the Blogger software to Spam; (iv) since its inception in February 2008 SOLO IP has welcomed comments from all sources: friends and foes alike.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous29 February 2012 at 13:12

    In the interests of balance, cakes are also available at Greggs, Tesco's, Waitrose and a lady I know.

    If spam filters are capable of identifying sarcasm, surely they could identify real spam a little more often.

    ReplyDelete

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