Pirate Bay Typo Squatter Applies For US Trademark On Pirate Bay As Well

from the use-in-commerce? dept

Fri, Aug 20th 2010 1:12pm — Mike Masnick

It should be no surprise that various malicious typo squatters have targeted The Pirate Bay with fake sites that try to install malware, however Torrentfreak looked a bit deeper and found that one of the typo squatters, a company called BladeBook, appears to be trying to trademark the actual name, as well. Apparently, BladeBook's Craig Pratka first filed for the trademark the same day that it was announced that The Pirate Bay had been sold to GGF, a deal that eventually fell apart (as did the initial trademark application).

However, the guy appears to have refiled a trademark application on "Pirate Bay" and "Pirates Bay" earlier this year, describing the business as:

Provision of telecommunications access and links to computer databases, computer networks and the Internet, namely, providing users online access via a website to third party websites featuring downloadable audio-visual media content in the nature of full-length, partial-length, and clips from motion pictures, television programming, sports events, videos, music videos, music, and interactive games. FIRST USE: 20020611. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20070111

This isn't the first time this has happened of course. Last year we wrote about someone else trying to trademark the logo. And while some who don't understand trademark law think that this is "fair game," considering the amount of unauthorized file sharing facilitated by The Pirate Bay, that misses the point. The folks behind The Pirate Bay have never had any problem with people using their logo or name or anything. What they do have a problem with is someone trying to lock it up so that others can't use it. That seems entirely consistent. Also, since trademarks are an entirely different type of law from copyrights, the comparison doesn't fully work either, since trademarks are supposed to be about preventing consumer confusion.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: trademark, typosquatter
Companies: the pirate bay

15 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Michael Long (profile), 20 Aug 2010 @ 2:43pm

Outside the law...
"The folks behind The Pirate Bay have never had any problem with people using their logo or name or anything. What they do have a problem with..."

The Pirate Bay has no problem whatsoever ignoring the wishes of content creators and artists and publishers, nor with ignoring international law. But now someone is doing something that THEY don't like, against their wishes...

(LOL)

Sorry. Forgive me for not having much sympathy, but why should they expect protection in one area of IP and Trademark law while they persist in violating all of the others everywhere else?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The Groove Tiger (profile), 20 Aug 2010 @ 2:52pm

Re: Outside the law...
Easy, because (please read every single Techdirt article about Pirate Bay and educate yourself).

Do you think that because you don't care about speeding laws, it is fair game that a murderer breaks into your house and shoots your children?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike Masnick (profile), 20 Aug 2010 @ 2:53pm

Re: Outside the law...
Sorry. Forgive me for not having much sympathy, but why should they expect protection in one area of IP and Trademark law while they persist in violating all of the others everywhere else?

Reading comprehension fail.

(1) They're not expecting protection. They're saying someone else shouldn't get false protection.

(2) As explained, trademark should not even be considered "IP" because it is entirely different than copyright.

All of that is in the post.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Marcus Carab (profile), 20 Aug 2010 @ 3:02pm

Re: Outside the law...
This is not about what one group likes and another group doesn't. Their decision demonstrates a consistent principle: open content.

It's not as though Pirate Bay tries to claim ownership of the infringing content that is tracked by their site, or stop people from finding it elsewhere. Then this would be hypocrisy.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The Groove Tiger (profile), 20 Aug 2010 @ 3:31pm

Re: Re: Outside the law...
ZOMG people wish one thing, and don't wish some other thing? Hypocrisy dude.

I wish to eat a sandwich, but I don't wish for people to step on my foot. I guess I'm an hypocrite. I should either wish everything, or not wish for everything.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
MrBG, 20 Aug 2010 @ 4:22pm

Re: Outside the law...
No person on this planet has ever obtained any copyrighted material from The Pirate Bay. You may obtain open source text files from them. Since you don't have a clue here is an example of the only downloads available from them.

{'announce': 'http://bttracker.debian.org:6969/announce'
'info': {'name': 'debian-503-amd64-CD-1.iso',
'piece length': 262144,
'length': 678301696',
'pieces': '841ae846bc5b6d7bd6e9aa3dd9e551559c82abc1 ... d14f1631d776008f83772ee170c42411618190a4'
}
}

So with that said and now that I have posted a valid hash does this now make techdirt a distro site for Debian?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 20 Aug 2010 @ 7:27pm

Re: Outside the law...
It's almost like you didn't even bother to read the text of the post.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
minijedimaster (profile), 20 Aug 2010 @ 7:46pm

Re: Re: Re: Outside the law...
LMAO... Epic Win
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2010 @ 1:43am

Re: Re: Outside the law...
Well duh! It's much easier to set up your own straw man and then proceed to beat the crap out of it, proudly announcing victory, rather than address the actual issues raised.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike Masnick (profile), 22 Aug 2010 @ 8:41pm

Re: Re: Outside the law...
I like how Mr. Long never bothered to show and respond to any of these comments.

Funny that.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Michael Long (profile), 23 Aug 2010 @ 10:52am

Re: Re: Re: Outside the law...
Sorry, perhaps I should have said, "Forgive me for not having much sympathy, but why should they expect protection in one area of IP and Trademark law while they persist in ENCOURAGING AND FACILITATING the violation all of the others?"

You know and I know that the "not actually serving files" argument is the thinest tissue paper defense possible. They themselves grin and laugh and thumb their noses at the authorities every time they say so.

It's as if I started handing out bats, clubs, and bricks to members of a mob, all while saying, "I'm not telling you to actually use these, you understand..."

And, for what it's worth, I was out the entire weekend, helping a friend's kid move into college for a semester. I'm sorry I was out having a life, and not here defending myself from your personal attacks.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Berenerd (profile), 23 Aug 2010 @ 11:29am

Re: Re: Re: Outside the law...
...Your comparison of eating a sandwich and someone stepping on your foot is not even close to being related. Now, if you were to say you wanted to make a sandwich to solve world hunger, and someone took that sandwich and added rat poison to it, that would be more accurate. You apparently have no idea what these types of sites do. They are malicious. They look only to destroy. It is a public safety issue as well as the fact they want to do it to keep something that is offered freely and make it private.
You need to stop having your shots of jack with your sandwich.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Cocobumbo, 28 Aug 2010 @ 12:34pm

Re: Re: Re: Outside the law...
I don't have the dope but I can give you the address where its sold... that is a weak defense anywhere in the world .. which is that same thing TPB is doing..
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Joe Diggs, 9 Sep 2010 @ 6:57am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Outside the law...
Sorry, perhaps I should have said, "Forgive me for not having much sympathy, but why should they expect protection in one area of IP and Trademark law while they persist in ENCOURAGING AND FACILITATING the violation all of the others?"

No, you shouldn't have "perhaps" said that.

You still need to read the rest of the article where it says they aren't expecting Trademark Protection.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
kaneis, 28 Sep 2010 @ 1:41pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Outside the law...
my comment to your kind and your way of thinking (which I doubt stems from pure sense of justice) is always this: Copyrighting is a two way street, if you keep pushing this, the rest of the world might strike back when they get the chance (and you bet it will come to that). What if the Greeks decide to forbid the use of greek words used in science, literture, arts and philosophy, the Arabs forbid the use of arabic numerals, the Italians forbid the use of the principles of Roman Law and the use of IOUs (which they discovered in the Middle Ages) and the Chinese the use of paper (which is a chinese invention), then what will you do? Are you going to declare war on everybody? or maybe try to follow Dario Fo's "Low Pay? Don't Pay!" suggestion?
[ link to this | view in thread ]