Ski resort offends Olympic committee - again

SALT LAKE CITY - Another winter, another Olympic copyright dispute.

Brighton Ski Resort, once the ''proud host of ZERO Olympic events,'' has run afoul of Olympic authorities again, this time over the Web site name ''Brightonupthegames.com.''

The U.S. Olympic Committee also is demanding Brighton take down advertising at the city's airport that shows five overlapping Brighton logos, similar to the Olympic brand of interlocking rings.

''Our advertising has always been on the edge,'' Brighton manager Randy Doyle said Tuesday after receiving a sternly worded, four-page letter from the USOC's law firm.

Coudert Brothers of San Francisco gave Brighton a day to surrender or risk a federal lawsuit.

''This is not the first time Brighton has opted to engage in ambush marketing,'' Carole F. Barrett, a lawyer with the firm, wrote in the letter.

After devoting two pages to copyright law, she adds the USOC ''can only assume that Brighton's use of the Olympic rings and terminology reflects an intentional effort to trade off the USOC's statutory rights and goodwill at the expense of American athletes.''

Not so, says Doyle, who insists the latest USOC objections are a stretch. He points out Brighton is too small to host an Olympic event, but not too small to contribute when Park City lacks enough snow for the U.S. ski team. ''They've been known to come over here early in the winter,'' he said.

But Doyle also deflects some blame on his bad-boy adman, Wes Spiker of Missoula, Mont. Spiker came up with this line for last year's ad campaign: ''This is Utah. Why be married to one resort?'' It's a reference to the state's history of polygamy.

With Spiker's help, Brighton got in the last word on the last Olympic dispute. Down went the ''ZERO Olympic'' billboards. Up went advertising promoting $35 lift tickets with, ''No wonder we can't afford to be sued'' and ''No one can take offense at this.''

Brighton also promoted its ski school with a jab at Salt Lake organizers for offering scholarships to relatives of IOC members during the bidding for the 2002 Winter Games: ''You don't need an Olympic Committee to get into this school.''

Doyle wasn't certain about Brighton's next step. The USOC is demanding a ''satisfactory response'' by Wednesday, when Doyle can only assume it wants to see a sign of capitulation.

USOC wants Brighton to yank the airport advertising and stop using the domain name, ''Brightonupthegames.com'', an alternate way to reach Brighton's regular Olympic-free Web site.

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On the Net:

Brighton Ski Resort: http://www.skibrighton.com or http://Brightonupthegames.com.

U.S. Olympic Committee: http://www.olympic-usa.org.

Salt Lake Organizing Committee: http://www.saltlake2002.com