Of course there is provision for non-commercial uses of trademarks &c.. If this were about trademark law then London Olympics 2012 could be used by anyone as it's merely a description of an event - it's not a distinctive mark by any stretch of the imagination; people couldn't however use their "Lisa Simpson performs fellatio" logo for example.
Presumably the IOC consider this sort of curtailing of rights to be part of what defines modern sporting events. TBH a request to do this should have had the response "we're sorry but the rights of the UK public aren't for sale to the highest bidder" ... obviously things swung the other way.
For example under the London Olympics 2006 Act Section 3 I can't mention "summer 2012" unless I'm a licensee of the new "London Olympic Association Right" lest a judge find me to be illegally associating commercial enterprise with the Olympics.
I like his dramatisations of publicly available video, like footage of parliament, that he is legally not allowed to use over here as his programmes count as satire.
That's right, in the UK it is actually illegal to use footage of parliament for satirical purposes.
Luckily, there is little need to satirise parliament, as they usually do a fine job of making themselves look utterly ridiculous without any external help. Every time I see footage of it these days I feel like I'm watching the worlds most boring medieval reenactment society.
