what if the players failed – got only silvers and not Gold?? what would have happened to the IP created? Speedo’s TM could have reduced which would have affected its valuation.

IP in Sport is worse to judge than the techniality as the human factor is huge.

I believe IP in sport is the best example of post mortem nalysis to understand the impact. It is better for the firm to wait for some success before starting to spread about its  IP being the core of success.

But back to Alan’s main point.  What Speedo is doing is brilliant from an IP strategy perspective.  The market for the Speedo Magic swimsuit is probably fairly small (even if most competitive swimmers pony up the money for them).  But by developing differentiated technology and making a big splash at the Olympics they have elevated their brand recognition to a never-before-seen level.  When ordinary consumers go in to buy an ordinary swimsuit they will be hit with the signal “if I buy a Speedo, I will be a good/better swimmer.”  This is GOLD! (pun intended) 

I predict that we will begin to see the Speedo brand much more frequently as Speedo moves to capture more of its brand equity.  Of course, Speedo needs to act carefully to not overplay this brand equity.  I hope we don’t begin to see the Speedo name slapped on everything remotely related to swimming.