Threat of Intellectual Property Crime Drives Goggle Maker to Celebrate Vonn in Rhyme

In case you were worried that the International Olympic Committee was getting better at doing any of their many jobs, I bring you the tale of goggle manufacturer UVEX.

On Wednesday, Lindsey Vonn won the women’s downhill in Vancouver. You may have heard about that. So did the company that makes her goggles. But UVEX was apparently warned by the IOC to not use the name, likeness, or media about Olympic winners. Therefore, they did what most creative people would do in this situation: resort to verse to make a point.

⇥And so it is with a wink and a nudge⇥⇥that we would like to congratulate a skier whose name we must fudge.⇥

⇥⇥Her hair is long and blonde ⇥

⇥⇥Last name rhymes with the German city of Bonn.⇥

⇥⇥Congratulations Women’s Downhill winner --⇥

⇥⇥⇥⇥from all of us here at UVEX (no longer an IOC sinner).⇥

Now, that’s creative enough, but UVEX followed that up with some clarification of the IOC’s policy on Friday. The word “draconian” is used, and they note that “congratulatory messages” are exempted from IOC policy. So they’ve both circumvented the IOC with innovation, if not the finest poetry in history, and rapped the organization on the head with logic and facts. I’d say UVEX got its fair share of publicity out of Lindsey Vonn.

The IOC might get more than its fair share from Vonn, too. But that publicity’s not likely to be the positive kind if this story takes root.

(HT: Boing Boing.)

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