Canadian Press reports that the lawsuit was filed against Nikolaus and Ingrid Homberg, the owners of Whistler Olympic Real Estate, the company using the domain name.
According to a Vancouver 2010 press release, the lawsuit uses hidden Internet code containing the Olympic-related terms – “Olympic”, “Olympic Games”, “2010 Vancouver” and “Whistler Games”.
The press release says the purpose of hidden code is to attract the attention of Internet users who might be directed to the defendants’ website rather than a genuine Olympic or Olympic Games-related website, says the press release.
John Furlong, chief executive officer of VANOC said: “The lawsuit is part of VANOC’s ongoing efforts to protect the Olympic Brand. Our business is organising the Games. We owe (it to) all Canadians to do our job properly to create conditions that will result in success for Canada’s Games in 2010.
“Any surplus funds generated by VANOC in its Games organising efforts will be devoted to the development of amateur sport in Canada. That’s the goal we all want to achieve.”
