‘Ambush’ Marketers, Beware: Here’s one Olympic event...

‘Ambush’ Marketers, Beware: Here’s one Olympic event you won’t see on any schedule: The race to the courthouse. The Olympic legal squad is warming up for an all-out effort to crack down on companies that give consumers the impression that they’re official game sponsors without shelling out the standard $40 million for the rights. The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games has assembled a $10-million SWAT team of undercover agents, trademark lawyers and public relations firms to go after these so-called ambush marketers. “We’re ready to serve papers at a moment’s notice,” said Bob Hollander, head of marketing for Olympic products. That may be mostly bluster, legal experts said. It’s not hard to squash small-time offenders such as pizza parlors using the trademark Olympic rings, but big companies are far savvier. They readily exploit the games with commercials during Olympic broadcasts that refer to the event generically or simply tout support for individual teams or athletes. “There is absolutely no foolproof way” to stop ambush marketers, said Ken Florin, a trademark expert at the New York law firm of Loeb & Loeb.