Olympians Sue Samsung Over Genome App

18 Olympians last week sued Samsung over a staple of its 2012 Olympic activation, the U.S. Olympic Genome Project, for allegedly misusing their names and photos in the Facebook application. As first reported by Bloomberg, the list of athletes suing Samsung include Dara Torres, Mark Spitz, Greg Louganis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and others.

The app, which was released earlier this month, aims to help Americans discover how they’re connected to Team USA and the Olympic Movement using their Facebook profile. Samsung claims that athletes were given the opportunity to "opt-out" of the Genome Project prior to its launch.

"Athletes have had the opportunity to voice their opinions on the programme and to control their participation," a statement by Samsung said.

The case, entitled Mark Spitz v. Samsung, BC483475, will be decided in California Superior Court (Los Angeles).

Recently, Samsung's Ralph Santana explained the U.S. Olympic Genome project at the Samsung Blogger Lounge at SXSW 2012. Check out the video below.

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