When I read the news today I found something (the article is in Swedish) that gave me both a little chuckle and todays “WTF moment”. It looks as if a Swedish company (that I’ve never heard of) called Sandryds Handel registered The Pirate Bay‘s logotype as their own. They even decided to keep the name below the ship, but for some reason they wrote it as “Piratebay” instead of “The Pirate Bay” as it usually looks like. The news article made it look as if the old TPB crew was crying because someone hade stolen their logotype, since I know how the Swedish media likes to twist the story I went to the real source, Peter Sunde’s blog, and read the other side of the story.
There are actually some quite interesting parts in Peter’s blog post. For instance the story about when Fredrik Neij sent an email to the Swedish Patent and Registration Office (patent- och registreringsverket, PRV), asking how he would go on to make a complaint in the interest of the public, he received an answer within a few minutes. Not from the PRV though, but from a Swedish journalist working for Swedish Radio (Sveriges Radio, SR) with a complete copy of his original mail.
Another thing to read about in Peter’s blog post is the fact that they doesn’t seem at all upset that someone tries to use their logotype, since it is supposed to be public domain. The problem as they see it, is that a third party can register a logotype that has been in the spotlight for about five years as their own which basically means that no one but that third party is allowed to use said logotype, unless given permission.
I’m pretty sure that all Sandryds Handel will get from this whole thing in the end is some free media space.