The London Olympic Games is fast approaching. Over the coming months,a wide range of brands will produce an enormous number of adverts and other promotional material attempting ride upon the wave of enthusiasm using references to London 2012.

Essentially, the Olympic Games are a dream for advertisers. It is obvious really that having goods or services associated with the games can and is likely to work wonders for business!

Some advertisers will display Olympic rings or London 2012 logos, others will refer to the Olympics without direct reference to the games. However, in using references to the Olympic games, advertisers will have to be very careful to do so within the realms of the law.

The law lies in the London Olympic and Paralympic Games Act 2006 and the Olympic Symbol (Protection) Act 1995. Under the legislation the use of the words such as ‘Olympic(s)’, ‘Olympian(s)’, ‘Paralympic(s)’, ‘London’, ‘Games’, ‘2012’, ‘gold’, ‘summer’ are all restricted. Interestingly, an advertiser will infringe these rights if a “representation” of any kind is used in the course of trade, in a manner likely to suggest to the public there is an association between the London Olympics and particular goods or services.

Basically, treading carefully is the best advice. Realistically, unless you are in fact an “official partner” its unlawful to pass any business off as being officially linked with the Games.