San Francisco Arts & Athletics, Inc. v. United States Olympic Committee
Encyclopedia
San Francisco Arts & Athletics, Inc. v. United States Olympic Committee, 483 U.S. 522
(1987), is a Supreme Court of the United States
decision interpreting the trademark rights of the United States Olympic Committee
(USOC) to regulate the use of the word "Olympic" under the Amateur Sports Act of 1978
. San Francisco Arts & Athletics, Inc. (SFAA) attempted to organize a sporting events it called the Gay Olympic Games, and the USOC sought to enjoin the games under that name. SFAA claimed that the First Amendment overrode the rights that the Act gave the USOC to control the word "Olympic".
The Supreme Court rejected SFAA's First Amendment claim and the SFAA renamed its event the Gay Games
.
(AAU) coordinating the United States teams. However, the AAU was criticized for its actions. Accordingly, the United States Congress
chartered a United States Olympic Committee and gave it exclusive rights to coordinate United States participation in international competitions. In addition, the Amateur Sports Act provided:
SFAA is a non-profit organization that sought to organize the "Gay Olympic Games" patterned after the Olympic Games
. There were numerous other organizations that used "Olympics" in their name, including the Junior Olympics
, Special Olympics
, Eskimo Olympics
, Police Olympics, and the Olympics of the Mind.
SFAA used "Gay Olympics" on its letterheads and mailings, in local newspapers, and on various merchandise sold to cover the costs of the planned Games. The USOC asked SFAA to stop using the word "Olympics" to name its games, and SFAA refused.
to enjoin the SFAA's use of the word "Olympic". The District Court granted a temporary restraining order and then a preliminary injunction against SFAA shortly before the scheduled date of the first "Gay Olympics". The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
affirmed the District Court. After further proceedings, the District Court granted the USOC summary judgment and a permanent injunction as well as ordered SFAA to pay the USOC's attorneys fees.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the judgment of the District Court, but reversed the attorneys fee award, in a January 1986 ruling. It found that the Act granted the USOC exclusive use of the word "Olympic" without requiring the USOC to prove that the unauthorized use was confusing and without regard to the defenses available to an entity sued for a trademark violation under the Lanham Act
. It did not reach the SFAA's contention that the USOC enforced its rights in a discriminatory manner (which it termed a "difficult issue") because the court found that the USOC is not a state actor bound by the constraints of the Constitution. The court also found that the USOC's "property righ[t] [in the word 'Olympic' and its associated symbols and slogans] can be protected without violating the First Amendment."
In April 1986, the Ninth Circuit denied the SFAA's petition for rehearing en banc. Three judges strongly dissented with that decision, finding that the panel's interpretation of the Act raised serious First Amendment issues. The SFAA appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court in August 1986.
; it was the first explicitly homosexual rights case to be heard before the Court since 1967 in the pre-Stonewall era
(although the Bowers v. Hardwick
sodomy laws case had been heard the year before). The SFAA was represented before the court by openly gay San Francisco attorney Mary Dunlap. It was also represented by the American Civil Liberties Union
. The USOC was represented by well-known Washington trial lawyer Edward Bennett Williams
.
During the March 24, 1987, oral arguments, the SFAA said it was denied use of the word "Olympic" due to its being a gay organization, and that the USOC as an agent of the U.S. government could not do so. Dunlap felt that she was likely to lose the case going in, a pessimism that increased when her planned line of argument was derailed by questioning from the bench.
, John Paul Stevens
and Antonin Scalia
. Justices Harry Blackmun
and Sandra Day O'Connor
joined in Parts I, II, and III of the opinion. Justice O'Connor joined by Justice Blackmun filed an opinion concurring and dissenting in part. Justice William J. Brennan filed a dissenting opinion
joined by Justice Thurgood Marshall
.
In the 7–2 parts, the Court rejected arguments that the USOC's Congressionally-authorized legal rights over use of the word "Olympic" constituted a First Amendment violation. The Court additionally rejected the notion that the SFAA possessed a constitutional right to use the word "Olympics" as a verbal vehicle for portraying their view about the state of gays in America.
In the 5–4 portion, the Court denied that the USOC had violated SFAA's right to equal protection under the laws via a discriminatory ban, vis à vis there having been many other groups staging games of various kinds under the moniker "Olympic".
As a defense, SFAA had claimed that an injunction was unwarranted because there was no likelihood of confusion between the Gay Olympics and the real Olympic Games. In response, the opinion found, the "legislative history demonstrates that Congress intended to provide the USOC with exclusive control of the use of the word 'Olympic' without regard to whether an unauthorized use of the word tends to cause confusion." In general, the opinion found that the defenses that are normally available in Lanham Act
cases do not apply to the trademarks protected by the Amateur Sports Act. The majority argued that the USOC and the Olympic movement had devoted considerable effort over time to build up the reputation of the Olympics that SFAA was trying to use. In rejecting SFAA's First Amendment claim because prohibiting the use of the "Olympics" did not prevent SFAA from conveying its message, the Court noted that SFAA was able to conduct its game under a different name.
because the USOC allowed other events to use the word "Olympics" but refused SFAA because the athletes were gay. The majority found that the government did not control how the USOC enforced its trademark rights and that the Fifth Amendment did not apply. However, O'Connor and Blackmun agreed with Brennan on the equal protection claim based on the Fifth Amendment.
Justice Brennan filed a dissenting opinion joined by Justice Marshall. The dissent argues that "The USOC performs a distinctive, traditional governmental function: it represents this Nation to the world community." The dissent also argued that the government forced the USOC to boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics
in Moscow was further evidence of the USOC being a state actor.
The dissent also finds the trademark provision of the Act overly broad. "The statute is overbroad on its face, because it is susceptible of application to a substantial amount of noncommercial speech, and vests the USOC with unguided discretion to approve and disapprove others' noncommercial use of 'Olympic.'" The dissent views the injunction as violating SFAA's First Amendment rights. The dissent noted, "Here, the SFAA intended, by use of the word 'Olympic', to promote a realistic image of homosexual men and women that would help them move into the mainstream of their communities." Preventing the SFAA from calling its games the "Gay Olympics" prevents the SFAA from expressing this idea. The dissent also argued that the Act regulated speech in a manner that was not content neutral. The Act allows the USOC to endorse particular non-commercial messages while prohibiting others. Accordingly, the dissent would have found for SFAA.
A lawyer representing the SFAA rued the ruling, noting that "Olympics" had been applied to contests involving rats and cockroaches and saying, "I guess the moral is that if you're gay, in the next life you'd better be born a rat if you want to use the word 'olympic'."
Based upon the earlier injunction, the SFAA had renamed its project, redoing its posters, literature, and T-shirts, and conducted the first Gay Games
in San Francisco from August 28 to September 2, 1982. It drew 1,300 people from 12 countries. Gay Games II had taken place in August 1986, and indeed among the 3,500 athletes participating in it was SFAA attorney Dunlap, a goalkeeper.
Former U.S. Olympian Tom Waddell
, who was the founder of the Gay Games, died of AIDS
complications on July 11, 1987, a few months after the Supreme Court decision.
The Gay Games retains many similarities with the Olympics, including the Gay Games flame which is lit at the opening ceremony. The USOC issued "Guidelines for Using Olympic Symbols, Marks, and Terminology".
Although the Gay Games have been conducted in many countries since 1982, they have not tried to use the word "Olympics" in those other countries. This is consistent with the existence of special trademark laws in countries other than the United States that also give special protection to the Olympic movement.
In the years since the lawsuit, the Olympics and the Gay Games have set aside their initial hostilities and worked cooperatively together, successfully lobbying to have HIV travel restrictions waived for the 1994 Gay Games in New York and the 1996 Summer Olympics
in Atlanta.
A 2009 documentary film called Claiming the Title: Gay Olympics on Trial was created in the United States and was previewed at several film festivals. The subject was also included in a 2005 film by David Sector, called Take the Flame! Gay Games: Grace Grit & Glory.
Case citation
Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...
(1987), is a Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
decision interpreting the trademark rights of the United States Olympic Committee
United States Olympic Committee
The United States Olympic Committee is a non-profit organization that serves as the National Olympic Committee and National Paralympic Committee for the United States and coordinates the relationship between the United States Anti-Doping Agency and the World Anti-Doping Agency and various...
(USOC) to regulate the use of the word "Olympic" under the Amateur Sports Act of 1978
Amateur Sports Act of 1978
The Amateur Sports Act of 1978, , establishes a United States Olympic Committee and provides for national governing bodies for each Olympic sport...
. San Francisco Arts & Athletics, Inc. (SFAA) attempted to organize a sporting events it called the Gay Olympic Games, and the USOC sought to enjoin the games under that name. SFAA claimed that the First Amendment overrode the rights that the Act gave the USOC to control the word "Olympic".
The Supreme Court rejected SFAA's First Amendment claim and the SFAA renamed its event the Gay Games
Gay Games
The Gay Games is the world's largest sporting and cultural event organized by and specifically for LGBT athletes, artists, musicians, and others. It welcomes participants of every sexual orientation and every skill level...
.
Background
Historically, the both the Olympic movement as well as the United States' participation evolved without government participation, with the Amateur Athletic UnionAmateur Athletic Union
The Amateur Athletic Union is one of the largest non-profit volunteer sports organizations in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs.-History:The AAU was founded in 1888 to...
(AAU) coordinating the United States teams. However, the AAU was criticized for its actions. Accordingly, the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
chartered a United States Olympic Committee and gave it exclusive rights to coordinate United States participation in international competitions. In addition, the Amateur Sports Act provided:
(a) Exclusive Right of Corporation.— Except as provided in subsection (d) of this section, the corporation has the exclusive right to use— ...
(4) the words “Olympic”, “Olympiad”, “Citius Altius Fortius”, “Paralympic”, “Paralympiad”, “Pan-American”, “America Espirito Sport Fraternite”, or any combination of those words.
SFAA is a non-profit organization that sought to organize the "Gay Olympic Games" patterned after the Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
. There were numerous other organizations that used "Olympics" in their name, including the Junior Olympics
AAU Junior Olympic Games
The AAU Junior Olympic Games are the pinnacle competition held annually by the US Amateur Athletic Union.-Sports currently held:The following is a list of sports that currently take place at the Junior Olympic Games.* Aquatics - Diving and Swimming...
, Special Olympics
Special Olympics
Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and competitions to more than 3.1 million athletes in 175 countries....
, Eskimo Olympics
World Eskimo Indian Olympics
The World Eskimo-Indian Olympics is an annual event held over a four-day period in July or August, designed to preserve cultural practices and traditional survival skills essential to life in circumpolar areas of the world...
, Police Olympics, and the Olympics of the Mind.
SFAA used "Gay Olympics" on its letterheads and mailings, in local newspapers, and on various merchandise sold to cover the costs of the planned Games. The USOC asked SFAA to stop using the word "Olympics" to name its games, and SFAA refused.
Proceedings below
In August 1982, the USOC sued SFAA in the United States District Court for the Northern District of CaliforniaUnited States District Court for the Northern District of California
The United States District Court for the Northern District of California is the federal United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San...
to enjoin the SFAA's use of the word "Olympic". The District Court granted a temporary restraining order and then a preliminary injunction against SFAA shortly before the scheduled date of the first "Gay Olympics". The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is a U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* District of Alaska* District of Arizona...
affirmed the District Court. After further proceedings, the District Court granted the USOC summary judgment and a permanent injunction as well as ordered SFAA to pay the USOC's attorneys fees.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the judgment of the District Court, but reversed the attorneys fee award, in a January 1986 ruling. It found that the Act granted the USOC exclusive use of the word "Olympic" without requiring the USOC to prove that the unauthorized use was confusing and without regard to the defenses available to an entity sued for a trademark violation under the Lanham Act
Lanham Act
The Lanham Act is a piece of legislation that contains the federal statutes of trademark law in the United States. The Act prohibits a number of activities, including trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and false advertising.-History:Named for Representative Fritz G...
. It did not reach the SFAA's contention that the USOC enforced its rights in a discriminatory manner (which it termed a "difficult issue") because the court found that the USOC is not a state actor bound by the constraints of the Constitution. The court also found that the USOC's "property righ[t] [in the word 'Olympic' and its associated symbols and slogans] can be protected without violating the First Amendment."
In April 1986, the Ninth Circuit denied the SFAA's petition for rehearing en banc. Three judges strongly dissented with that decision, finding that the panel's interpretation of the Act raised serious First Amendment issues. The SFAA appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court in August 1986.
The arguments
TheSupreme Court granted certiorariCertiorari
Certiorari is a type of writ seeking judicial review, recognized in U.S., Roman, English, Philippine, and other law. Certiorari is the present passive infinitive of the Latin certiorare...
; it was the first explicitly homosexual rights case to be heard before the Court since 1967 in the pre-Stonewall era
Stonewall riots
The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City...
(although the Bowers v. Hardwick
Bowers v. Hardwick
Bowers v. Hardwick, , is a United States Supreme Court decision that upheld, in a 5-4 ruling, the constitutionality of a Georgia sodomy law criminalizing oral and anal sex in private between consenting adults when applied to homosexuals. Seventeen years after Bowers v. Hardwick, the Supreme Court...
sodomy laws case had been heard the year before). The SFAA was represented before the court by openly gay San Francisco attorney Mary Dunlap. It was also represented by the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
. The USOC was represented by well-known Washington trial lawyer Edward Bennett Williams
Edward Bennett Williams
Edward Bennett Williams was a Washington, D.C. trial attorney who founded the law firm of Williams & Connolly and owned several professional sports teams...
.
During the March 24, 1987, oral arguments, the SFAA said it was denied use of the word "Olympic" due to its being a gay organization, and that the USOC as an agent of the U.S. government could not do so. Dunlap felt that she was likely to lose the case going in, a pessimism that increased when her planned line of argument was derailed by questioning from the bench.
The decision
The opinion of the Court was delivered by Justice Lewis F. Powell, joined by Justices William RehnquistWilliam Rehnquist
William Hubbs Rehnquist was an American lawyer, jurist, and political figure who served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States and later as the 16th Chief Justice of the United States...
, John Paul Stevens
John Paul Stevens
John Paul Stevens served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from December 19, 1975 until his retirement on June 29, 2010. At the time of his retirement, he was the oldest member of the Court and the third-longest serving justice in the Court's history...
and Antonin Scalia
Antonin Scalia
Antonin Gregory Scalia is an American jurist who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. As the longest-serving justice on the Court, Scalia is the Senior Associate Justice...
. Justices Harry Blackmun
Harry Blackmun
Harold Andrew Blackmun was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 until 1994. He is best known as the author of Roe v. Wade.- Early years and professional career :...
and Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor is an American jurist who was the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served as an Associate Justice from 1981 until her retirement from the Court in 2006. O'Connor was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981...
joined in Parts I, II, and III of the opinion. Justice O'Connor joined by Justice Blackmun filed an opinion concurring and dissenting in part. Justice William J. Brennan filed a dissenting opinion
Dissenting opinion
A dissenting opinion is an opinion in a legal case written by one or more judges expressing disagreement with the majority opinion of the court which gives rise to its judgment....
joined by Justice Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991...
.
In the 7–2 parts, the Court rejected arguments that the USOC's Congressionally-authorized legal rights over use of the word "Olympic" constituted a First Amendment violation. The Court additionally rejected the notion that the SFAA possessed a constitutional right to use the word "Olympics" as a verbal vehicle for portraying their view about the state of gays in America.
In the 5–4 portion, the Court denied that the USOC had violated SFAA's right to equal protection under the laws via a discriminatory ban, vis à vis there having been many other groups staging games of various kinds under the moniker "Olympic".
As a defense, SFAA had claimed that an injunction was unwarranted because there was no likelihood of confusion between the Gay Olympics and the real Olympic Games. In response, the opinion found, the "legislative history demonstrates that Congress intended to provide the USOC with exclusive control of the use of the word 'Olympic' without regard to whether an unauthorized use of the word tends to cause confusion." In general, the opinion found that the defenses that are normally available in Lanham Act
Lanham Act
The Lanham Act is a piece of legislation that contains the federal statutes of trademark law in the United States. The Act prohibits a number of activities, including trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and false advertising.-History:Named for Representative Fritz G...
cases do not apply to the trademarks protected by the Amateur Sports Act. The majority argued that the USOC and the Olympic movement had devoted considerable effort over time to build up the reputation of the Olympics that SFAA was trying to use. In rejecting SFAA's First Amendment claim because prohibiting the use of the "Olympics" did not prevent SFAA from conveying its message, the Court noted that SFAA was able to conduct its game under a different name.
The dissent
Justice O'Connor joined by Justice Blackmun filed an opinion concurring and dissenting in part. They had joined the first three parts of the majority opinion but dissented from Part IV that dealt with SFAA's claim that the injunction violated the Fifth AmendmentFifth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, protects against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure. Its guarantees stem from English common law which traces back to the Magna Carta in 1215...
because the USOC allowed other events to use the word "Olympics" but refused SFAA because the athletes were gay. The majority found that the government did not control how the USOC enforced its trademark rights and that the Fifth Amendment did not apply. However, O'Connor and Blackmun agreed with Brennan on the equal protection claim based on the Fifth Amendment.
Justice Brennan filed a dissenting opinion joined by Justice Marshall. The dissent argues that "The USOC performs a distinctive, traditional governmental function: it represents this Nation to the world community." The dissent also argued that the government forced the USOC to boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics
1980 Summer Olympics
The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. In addition, the yachting events were held in Tallinn, and some of the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament...
in Moscow was further evidence of the USOC being a state actor.
The dissent also finds the trademark provision of the Act overly broad. "The statute is overbroad on its face, because it is susceptible of application to a substantial amount of noncommercial speech, and vests the USOC with unguided discretion to approve and disapprove others' noncommercial use of 'Olympic.'" The dissent views the injunction as violating SFAA's First Amendment rights. The dissent noted, "Here, the SFAA intended, by use of the word 'Olympic', to promote a realistic image of homosexual men and women that would help them move into the mainstream of their communities." Preventing the SFAA from calling its games the "Gay Olympics" prevents the SFAA from expressing this idea. The dissent also argued that the Act regulated speech in a manner that was not content neutral. The Act allows the USOC to endorse particular non-commercial messages while prohibiting others. Accordingly, the dissent would have found for SFAA.
Aftermath
Based upon the earlier injunction, the SFAA had renamed its project, redoing its posters, literature, and T-shirts, and conducted the first Gay Games
Gay Games
The Gay Games is the world's largest sporting and cultural event organized by and specifically for LGBT athletes, artists, musicians, and others. It welcomes participants of every sexual orientation and every skill level...
in San Francisco from August 28 to September 2, 1982. It drew 1,300 people from 12 countries. Gay Games II had taken place in August 1986, and indeed among the 3,500 athletes participating in it was SFAA attorney Dunlap, a goalkeeper.
Former U.S. Olympian Tom Waddell
Tom Waddell
Dr. Tom Waddell was the gay American sportsman who founded the international sporting event called the Gay Games, which was named such after the United States Olympic Committee sued Dr. Waddell for using the word "Olympic" in the original name "Gay Olympics". The Gay Games are held every four...
, who was the founder of the Gay Games, died of AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
complications on July 11, 1987, a few months after the Supreme Court decision.
The Gay Games retains many similarities with the Olympics, including the Gay Games flame which is lit at the opening ceremony. The USOC issued "Guidelines for Using Olympic Symbols, Marks, and Terminology".
Although the Gay Games have been conducted in many countries since 1982, they have not tried to use the word "Olympics" in those other countries. This is consistent with the existence of special trademark laws in countries other than the United States that also give special protection to the Olympic movement.
In the years since the lawsuit, the Olympics and the Gay Games have set aside their initial hostilities and worked cooperatively together, successfully lobbying to have HIV travel restrictions waived for the 1994 Gay Games in New York and the 1996 Summer Olympics
1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics of Atlanta, officially known as the Games of the XXVI Olympiad and unofficially known as the Centennial Olympics, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States....
in Atlanta.
A 2009 documentary film called Claiming the Title: Gay Olympics on Trial was created in the United States and was previewed at several film festivals. The subject was also included in a 2005 film by David Sector, called Take the Flame! Gay Games: Grace Grit & Glory.
See also
- List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 483
- List of United States Supreme Court cases
- Lists of United States Supreme Court cases by volume
- List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Rehnquist Court