Olympic Committee, Olympic Cellars reach agreement

Olympic Cellars Winery has reached an agreement with the U.S. Olympic Committee allowing the winery to keep its name and maintain its Web site as long as wine sales east of the Cascade Mountains are not "substantial."

Other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The agreement comes nine months after Olympic Cellars, which is located between Port Angeles and Sequim, received a letter from the USOC citing it for violation of the 1998 Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, which gives the committee commercial control of the word "Olympic." The act has been amended to allow businesses on the Olympic Peninsula to use the word in marketing west of the Cascade Mountains.

The winery is on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, has a view of the Olympic Mountains and has used the Olympic name since 1992. It received permission from a USOC trademark attorney in 1999 to use the Web site www.olympiccellars.com.

"Though my Working Girl Wine brand was exempted from all restrictions, the bottom line is that I can't significantly grow a brand that incorporates the winery name, Olympic Cellars," co-owner Kathy Charlton said in a press release Tuesday. "We will be forced to remain small even though the term OLYMPIC is our birthright and heritage."

She called for Congress to amend the 1998 law again to account for changes in electronic commerce and the global economy.

Melissa Allison: 206-464-3312 or mallison@seattletimes.com