Washington Winery Runs Afoul of the Olympics

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jan 14th 2008 at 3:02PM

A winery in Seattle has found themselves a pretty big foe. Olympic Cellars Winery is currently involved in a fracas with the U.S. Olympic Committee over their name. The winery is located on the Olympic Peninsula with a view of the Olympic Mountains but as the Seattle Times reports, the U.S. Olympic Committee has told the winery that its name infringes on the committee. The winery received permission from a Olympic committee trademark attorney in 1999 to use the name for their website. The committee has said that they are fine with the winery selling the wine locally in western Washington, but they have asked the winery not sell to those who live elsewhere or have not visited the winery. While Federal law allows companies to use the word "Olympic" for business done in Western Washington. Olympic Cellars is also the founder of Working Girl Wines, which sells wines are in 20 states and supports woman and family-based charities. They sell a wide variety of wines ranging from $13 to $25.

Tags: olympic cellars, olympic committee, OlympicCellars, washington, wine

Filed under: Wine

Source

Subscribe to these comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

DJ Jan 15th 2008 9:48AM

This just in, Steve Jobs on the way in to MacWorld announced that his company will be suing New York City over the use of the name "The Big Apple". In additon, separate lawsuits will be filed against all grocers and other retailers selling Apples with his authorization, and against Gweneth Paltrow for naming her daughter Apple.

This has to be the most ridiculous action ever by the Olympic Committee, that's saying a lot. If anyone is going to challenge the use of the name, it should be the State of Washington against the USOC, Afterall, the olympic Mountain range was there many centuries before the USOC even came into existence.