Seems that in order to get the franchise for hostingthe 2010 Winter Olympics, Vancouver had to grease quite a bit of palms and also agree to a series of demands by the Olympic Committee, one of which is to pass legislation defining a list of terms associated with the Olympics. These terms can be used by the Committee in court to defend their trademark, and their usage constitutes misleading the public to create false association with the olympics.

This list includes the words:

• Olympics
• Medals
• Games
• Vancouver
• Gold
• Silver
• 2010.

Good thing they didn’t just trademark the whole English language while they were at it.
  
    [via BoingBoing]