Olympic Gyro, a family-owned lunch counter in Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market, has changed its name to Olympia Gyro after receiving a cease-and-desist e-mail from the U.S. Olympic Committee,
the
Philadelphia Daily News
reported.
USOC, the non-profit entity responsible for training and funding U.S. teams, claimed copyright of the word “Olympic” under a 1978 law, the article said.
The family of owner Athens Voulgaridis bought the shop in 1984. Voulgaridis told the
Daily News
that he will spend at least $6,000 to change the name of the eatery, including designing and ordering new employee uniforms and signs. He said he didn’t have the money to fight the USOC in court.
The
Daily News
report said the USOC has made similar demands of Improv Olympic Theater and Olympic Meat Packers Inc. in Chicago and Olympic Cellars in Washington state, among other businesses. The law passed by Congress granted the USOC all commercial use of Olympic imagery and terminology in the U.S., but it included a grandfather clause allowing businesses named before 1978 to keep the name, the article said. (Source:
Philadelphia Daily News,
July 11, 2012.)
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