Seoul has decided to change the name of its Seoul Design Olympiad (SDO) from next year.
Well, that's one way to put it.
The decision came after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) submitted a written protest over Seoul's use of the term "Olympiad"without seeking prior authorization. The IOC regulates the use of Olympic-related terms and goods.
This comes as a major embarrassment for Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, a lawyer by occupation, who came close to being sued for using the term without permission.
Oh ignored calls made by pertinent organizations to change the name for nearly two years before yielding, leaving a black mark on the major international design event.
The Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) forwarded the IOC letter to Seoul. The city, in turn, asked to use the term for this year's event, which will be held this month.
Seoul officials claimed there is no legal problem because the official title of the design fair uses the word Olympiad, rather than "Olympics." Nevertheless, the KOC said that it would be a breach of a copyright, as Seoul often plugs the event as Olympics.
Indeed, the Korean name is 서울디자인올림픽2009. Shit, just two weeks ago the very same Korea Times called it the 2009 Seoul Design Olympics.
Today's article continues by saying the International Olympic Committee contacted Seoul back in 2007 about the name. The new name will be announced on October 29th, and early favorites include the Seoul Design Super Bowl, the World Cup of Design, and Starpreya.
10 comments:
I for one always think the Olympics gets creepy when it does stuff like this. I remember at one point they were trying to bust the chops of Greek restaurants that used Olympic in their restaurant names. Geez.
Used as a proper noun an Olympiad is a measure of time, being an interval of four years.
Thus I doubt it was being used correctly by the Korean organisers anyway. In this case if the last one was in 1997 it really should be the Seoul Design biennial-iad.
Problem solved.
"... early favorites include the Seoul Design Super Bowl, the World Cup of Design, and Starpreya."
Teh funny.
I wonder if my school district back in Orange County will be forced to change the name of the Academic Olympics?
And I concur: Way funny last line.
The fact that they've been "warned" for two years is funny for a lot of reasons.
But I liken this situation to the existence of "Crocodile", "Beverly Hills Polo Club", "Bean Pole", "Who a u" etc. all being complete and obvious rip offs of real brands.
The seeming disregard for copyrights and branding were one of the first things I noticed.
But I liken this situation to the existence of "Crocodile", "Beverly Hills Polo Club", "Bean Pole", "Who a u" etc. all being complete and obvious rip offs of real brands.
Crocodile, like Giordano, is a Hong Kong-based brand, not a Korean creation.
Beverly Hills Polo Club is an American creation I remember seeing in California before ever seeing it in Korea.
Who are Bean Pole and Who a u supposed to be rip-offs of?
Kushibo: Who.A.U (stupid name btw), are supposed to be ripoffs of Hollister and Abercrombie. That's not just me saying it, I have heard it from numerous different sources.
Though I did buy a really good looking jacket from there a few days ago...
Ryan wrote:
Kushibo: Who.A.U (stupid name btw), are supposed to be ripoffs of Hollister and Abercrombie. That's not just me saying it, I have heard it from numerous different sources.
Um... Hollister was launched in 2000, and if memory serves, Who.A.U has been around a little longer than that (I think they were one of the original shops in the COEX Mall).
Their parent company, E-Land, has been making "American vintage" clothing in Korea for several decades, and Who.A.U is a continuation of that. Not really much of a rip-off, unless you want to say any company selling American vintage is a rip-off except the first one who did it.
Ambercrombie & Fitch of New York City, the parent company of Hollister, ripped off companies like Hang Ten, Op, etc., with their faux surfing style (but in that case, so did Who.A.U).
Anyway, this is about brands, not styles. Is the Who.A.U brand or logo a rip-off of anything (other than the Orange County Register or the Orange County seal)?
kushibo: I don't really know anything more than what I heard, neither do I consider myself an expert in such areas :)
I was just adding something that might have been prudent to this conversation.
Who AU is clearly a rip off of A&F. It's not that it's a rip off of "oh let's sell surf wear". It's a rip off of the store presentation. Seriously if you don't walk into a Who AU and go "yep, Korea's A&F" then you're pretty ignorant of youth trends.
Korea's Tommy Atkins is probably the best example, which 100% ripped off Tommy Hilfiger.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Jo2tf9A4p-U/RgyMdl2b4dI/AAAAAAAAAuU/AS9lNuXyvF4/s1600-h/IMG_2843+%28Small%29.JPG
And then there was that Korean cosmetics company Misha that ripped off a Western company's logo (the took their five petal flower logo and just rotated it).
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