Evidence of meeting #65 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was vanoc.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
No, but all of the marks that come under—anything under our jurisdiction, which is the rings, the Vancouver 2010—all of that—comes under what they required us to do, all of it.
Independent
André Arthur Independent Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
But they did not ask you to protect the Vancouver name, or the Whistler name. This they didn't care about. They wanted to protect their own trademarks, to deal, for their own benefit, with their own sponsors, who are not necessarily yours. Is that so?
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
No, I think they wanted protection in place for everything they're connected to. They have the same interest in the Vancouver 2010 brand being protected as they do the Olympic rings, and as they do the torch and so on. They would have expected that.
Independent
André Arthur Independent Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
You gave us your word a few minutes ago that the application of those rules, the enforcement, would be “reasonable”. That is the word you used, “reasonable”, for what it will be.
I understand, Mr. Furlong, that you're a man of honour, and you speak for the Vancouver committee. You don't speak for the IOC. How can you satisfy the Parliament of Canada that the enforcement by the IOC will be reasonable when we know that every time it has been observed, this organization has been found to be one of the most corrupt international organizations in the world?
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
The responsibility has been passed to Vancouver 2010 to provide this protection in Canada. We have the jurisdiction here, so the duty is ours. It's our responsibility to put the protections in place. It's our responsibility to seek the remedies. It's our duty to do what it is we're talking about in here.
So it's for us, not for them, to do that.
Independent
André Arthur Independent Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
You are going to be the agent of the IOC in the enforcement of those rules, and we can take your word that the enforcement in Canada, in the name of the IOC, will be reasonable?
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
Well, I stick by my comment earlier that, yes, it will be reasonable.
Independent
André Arthur Independent Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
And it's going to be your enforcement, not theirs.
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
Yes.
Independent
Conservative
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the delegation.
One of the concerns I raised earlier, and was not totally satisfied on, was with regard to the section of the bill that talks about publication and broadcasting being protected. It doesn't have a specific notation for electronic media.
Would you be open to the inclusion of electronic media, given your comment that you're not going to be out there discussing the pros and cons and so forth with regard to the debate out there? Electronic media is an emerging form that's different from broadcasting and publications.
Director, Commercial Rights Management, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
We treat electronic media under the broad category of media itself. It would be just another platform. So yes, I think in any approach we would take to the media at large, we would have an equal approach to electronic media.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
That would be helpful. Really, it's good to hear that.
I know you've raised...and I think it's legitimate in terms of the argument that you have a problem if there is some type of disagreement with regard to the use of a logo or symbols and so forth. The normal legal process wouldn't work very well to protect those who have purchased the property rights for those.
I guess the other side of it is that if they have to go through a legal process, and there is no real due course there, then they're kind of shut out. Is there any discussion or opportunity to create some type of independent organization, an independent voice that comes into VANOC, that can maybe help to mediate these, or that can decide within 48 hours--like in an appeal case, for example--and then send it to the courts? Would you be open to that, to having a due diligence review, and thus greater comfort that there could actually be an independent organization from VANOC, or at least a component, that would give the opportunity for things to be heard right away?
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
For us, typically we have to be able to act swiftly. But the process you speak of kind of exists now. We immediately start to try to remedy this using other means. We collaborate, we have a dialogue, we visit with these companies to try to have this settled.
You know, we start out believing that most organizations have made a mistake and that we need to help them fix the mistake, if we possibly can. It's when we get past that and there clearly is no other place to go that we have moved to the other. So I think we sort of do it now. We try right away to have a dialogue.
Wouldn't you say so, Bill?
Director, Commercial Rights Management, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
Yes.
As John said earlier, our main asset is reputation. As a subset to that, we really take very seriously the objective of going through as many layers as possible before we would even consider a remedy such as this. To that end, everything we're doing right now is based on voluntary compliance.
We do exceptional levels of education. When we see something in the marketplace that seems to be leading towards an unauthorized association, our first reaction is to engage with the party to try to coach them through voluntary compliance and to try to reach a mutual agreement on what are allowable thresholds. Thus far the success rate has been extraordinarily high.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
It's just that I think you're sensing a little bit of discomfort in the sense that I don't think there are any alternative motives here, but I don't have any of the guidelines or processes in front of me yet I'm being asked to approve that basically through this process here, and then it's going to be presented to me elsewhere. So I need assurances, and maybe you can give them to me today, that aboriginal groups, for example, and not-for-profits are going to have clear-cut access to be able to get authorization either by fee or no fee, and hopefully in the proper cases, no fee, and that it will be done expediently. I know you'll have a lot to do, but I'm hoping I can get assurances that those organizations—not-for-profits and aboriginal groups—will be able to find their way through this process quickly.
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
I'll have Bill speak specifically to this, but we do have a program right now. This is really about commercial, it's about business, it's for profit that this bill is about. We have programs in place where we sometimes grant rights to non-profit entities. Off the top of my head, I don't have a list for you, but we do that. But this bill is really aimed at those who would seek to profit by using marks unlawfully and so on and so forth.
Bill.
Director, Commercial Rights Management, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
I'd just emphasize that. It's really about unauthorized commercial associations, and aboriginal artists or other non-profit organizations would fall well out of that. In that sense, they would be free to use the marks in artistic expression, etc., etc. That would also tie back in to the need, which we embrace, for public education, so those entities know that they can do that, and what the allowable distances are that they can go with that.
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
We're in the happy position, Mr. Chair, today to be able to say that we have a relationship with the aboriginal communities of Canada that's quite unprecedented, and in fact they're partners in putting on the games. So there's a lot of programming going on to encourage that and working with that. In fact, they're probably one of the groups that are the most knowledgeable on how to work with the Olympic Organizing Committee, so the likelihood of having challenges there is actually less than it might be if we hadn't actually started down that road. We believe that this aboriginal participation is going to greatly enhance the image and reputation and performance of the organizing committee on 2010.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
You have five seconds, so the answer is no. Thank you, Mr. Masse.
We'll go to Mr. Byrne.
Liberal
Gerry Byrne Liberal Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL
Thank you very much.
A quick question to you, Anita, and then we'll move, if I can, to John.
Congratulations: you're a $5-million company and you're going multi-million-dollar after this.
Can you give the committee some examples of sporting organizations or key events that you've done promotional marketing material for in the past?
Vice-President, Hunter Licensed Sports Distribution Corporation, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
We are a licensee of all of the major sports properties. As the latest addition to our licensing efforts, we are doing programs with the FIFA Under-20 World Cup, which is coming to Canada this summer. We are working on the President's Cup. We have, as I said, all of the major properties: the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, CFL, and Hockey Canada and Hockey USA.
Liberal
Gerry Byrne Liberal Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL
So for the NHL, you basically are the official licensor of—