Cashing in

This George Vecsey column in the New York Times notes that since 1950, the United States Olympic Committee has had the exclusive American marketing rights to the Olympics. So if you were thinking about using the interlocking Olympic rings to jazz up, say, the dust jacket of your dissertation's book version, think again.

But I'm wondering: how did this curiosity from 1976 get by the committee? Were they just so stunned that they gave it a pass?