By Duncan Mackay

Olympic Village with Olympic ringsFebruary 8 - More than 750 firms have registered for a special licence giving them the right to publicise their involvement with London 2012 after a controversial marketing gag was lifted, it has been revealed. 

Details of the licence were only announced last week by London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe but already there has been a rush of firms wanting to be able to take part in the scheme, building.co.uk reported today. 

The new licence will give firms who worked on London 2012 the opportunity to promote their involvement with the Olympics and Paralympics to help develop new business, which until now they have been prevented from doing so by strict confidentiality clauses.

The British Olympic Association (BOA) - who are administering the scheme - revealed that so far 48 licences have been approved, while in total 752 firms have started the process.

London 2012 velodrome from outsideCompanies behind the highly-acclaimed London 2012 Velodrome will now be able to publicise their involvement thanks to a new scheme

Among the firms who have applied to take part in the scheme are Lend Lease, who built the Olympic Village (pictured above); ISG, who were behind the highly-acclaimed Velodrome; Make, the architect of the Copper Box; and Wilkinson Eyre, architect of the Basketball Arena. 

"Hopefully it's not too late for them once they get out into the international market," New London Architecture chairman Peter Murray told building.co.uk.  

"[The take-up] shows a lot of pent up demand for this."

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