Olympic domain/trademark usage help please

[TheTattooedGuy]

Hi guys

OK first to say two things, one is I'll take your input as informal opinions not legal advice etc, two is do bear in mind I'm new to affiliate marketing

OK so, wanted to do a sports gambling site specifically on Olympics betting. (I don't have time to develop a more general one at the moment). Bought a nice domain name, site up last week, happy days.

Went to LAC and a talk there and found out to my horror you can't use the words Olympic/s/x/London 2012 etc in domain names. I appreciate now this was a bit naive of me. Anyway

So what I don't get is, I know there's a couple of Acts which govern this but there's plenty of affiliate sites with the various 'banned' words in them and indeed one from the winter games belonging to a PAL member

So as I see it I have two choices - one is I keep the site up and running and in the event of being asked to take it down, 301 it to my 'back up' domain (betonthegames.org - 'games' on its own is allowed). My worry here isn't being asked to take the site down it's being taken for the affiliate income...
Or two take said site down and clone it now to betonthegames.org thus not being in breach of anything.

I don't want to put the URL of the site in question up but it's a really good domain and I'd be loathe to ditch it.

So has anyone here had any issues at the past games with Olympics related domains? Or similar sporting events?
What would you do - keep a really nice domain and hope for the best or play it safe and ditch it now?

Have had some thoughts from a couple of you via email which I really appreciate by the way

thanks guys

Andy

[Spry]

i would probably 301 it now to betonthegames.org - pretty solid.

[baldidiot]

The other suggestion is to keep it with the trademarked domain and if they get in touch just try to stall them until after the games are over. I have no experience with dealing with domain seizures, but surely if you challenge the seizure it or respond formally etc... you have to be given adequate time to prepare a defense, right?

[TheTattooedGuy]

Yeah Ill be honest, I don't know. I mean I'm not bothered/scared of them saying shut it down or even taking the domain, its if they will then go for affiliate income.. really unsure what to do as I have no point of reference

[pokerprop]

The advice on affiliate forums are always too light, as many like rolling the dice and making the easy profits as the chances of something major happening are slim. My questions are: do you pay health insurance? do you pay for any other type of insurance? if the answer is no proceed and understand the risk. If the answer is yes avoid trademark domains like the plague.

[TheTattooedGuy]

Thanks - is there real risk of the affiliate income being seized, do you think, or would it just be the domain at risk?

Cheers

[pokerprop]

too many factors, as long as making it clear you're not the same company as the trademark is infringing on probably only the domain at risk. I've seen a lot of people here use logos of major companies and same color scheme etc. of brand they are infringing on. If the only risk was affiliate earnings and the domain do it all day long and give back what you get caught on. In many cases it is not clear, but somethings are risky than others - in general sports leagues and things like this when used like a fan site are lower risk. At one time they were high risk (like 2000 when NHL went on a lawsuit spree.. but backlash was quite large, I think later they realized this was not a good idea suing fans of their league lol). Owning something like Disneytoys.com would be extremely stupid. Owning something like nhlfans.com lower risk.

[TheTattooedGuy]

Mainly putting this here as hopefully someone from the Olympics will come across it - I'm livid with them having had a useless conversation with them trying to find out what content affiliates can have (their guidelines only mention 'operators') and having got nowhere. Emailed their brand protection back in January - nothing. Great.
Basically I'm going to pull the domain I have running with Olympics in it and 301 to another backup I have which includes 'the games' (which on its own is allowed) but there is a ton of stuff in

http://www.london2012.com/documents/...-operators.pdf

which raises questions about what we can get away with (i.e. creating an implied association with the Games). Their guidelines are a total joke - I understand not using the logo and stuff but not using images which would create an association? Jeez

I couldn't get any firm answers (even to whether affiliates can use subdomains with Olympic word) and told to seek legal advice. FFS what is their problem?

</rant>

[rakebackengine]

Will u use the domain after July 2012? My feeling (and it may be stupid) but hit and run with it. If they complain stall them till after the games.

[TheTattooedGuy]

Finally spoke to someone with a clue there, apparently no microsites/standalones are allowed. Grr
Their brand guidlines are a total farce