A friend of mine did this race (www.extrememan.hu), and browsing through their website it was interesting to see the prevalent use of the word “ironman” to describe their race, and using the word as a common noun to refer to long course triathlon.
Is any of this trademark infringement? (not that anyone cares, relatively small race, 1000 people/year, but growing). Hungary has been an EU member since 2005, and is covered by ACTA.
It’s also used as a common noun in Italian and a few other languages that I have knowledge of. Not really aware of the copyright law but I think this is quite widespread.
Pretty sure it’s a no no and they will get a cease-and-desist letter from WTC in some manner shape or form. I don’t know about global copyrights or trademarks, so I could be incorrect.