The Australian Olympic Committee has "lost its first Olympic competition before the 2016 Games even begin," with its legal action against Telstra and the telecom's "Go to Rio" Olympic-themed advertising campaign dismissed, according to Max Mason of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Justice Michael Wigney "dismissed the AOC's application on Friday and ordered the committee to pay Telstra's costs." Wigney said, "There could be no doubt that Telstra's campaign was themed around the forthcoming Rio Olympic Games." The AOC case alleged that Telstra had breached the Olympic Insignia Protection Act 1987, "despite later adding a disclaimer." Telstra had "modified the promotion after receiving legal threats" from the AOC to make "clear that Telstra is not an official sponsor of the Olympic Games, the Australian Olympic team or of the Australian or International Olympic Committees." Wigney: "It is, however, not enough for the AOC to prove that the advertisements were Olympic-themed. Were they so, any advertisement over the next month that used Peter Allen's I Go To Rio song (and it is not difficult to imagine that everyone will be heartily sick of that same by the end of the Rio Games) or images of people playing or watching sport, might equally be accused of misleadingly associating themselves with the Olympics Games or Olympic bodies" (SMH, 7/29). The AAP reported in a statement, the AOC said, "Disappointingly, the court's decision in this particular case has, on what the AOC considers to be a very narrow application of the law, gone against the interests of Australia's Olympic teams." The AOC said that Wigney found that "there could be no doubt that Telstra intended to, and may well have succeeded in capitalising or exploiting, in a marketing sense, the forthcoming Rio Olympic Games." The AOC added that the court ruled Telstra's campaign did not cross a "fine line" by contravening the law (AAP, 7/30).
