Wirtland's flag under copyright attack?

What is more important in modern world: political law or intellectual property law? Since birth of Wirtland in 2008, Wirtland feels politically safe, as nobody questioned our right for sovereignty and independence. But what about intellectual property? To our great surprise, there is someone who wants to challenge our intellectual property rights. Believe or not, this someone says he holds intellectual property rights over... Wirtland's flag!

This sounds absurd, but that's exactly what happened this week. As any community, Wirtland wanted to offer its own official merchandise. We developed several apparel designs, based on our own artwork. Naturally, our designs included Wirtland's flag. Recently we have opened a shop at Zazzle.com. Wirtland's shop initially offered 9 items, including T-shirts, sweaters, caps, bags, with printed or embroidered Wirtland identity images. All clothing is fully customizable: the buyer can remove/replace inscriptions, add own texts, change compositions, adjust colours, to make his garment unique.

However, we were surprised to receive a letter from Zazzle, saying: "We have been contacted by the intellectual property right holder and at their request we will be removing your product from Zazzle’s Marketplace due to copyright claims". Now, who is that mysterious holder of copyright over the Wirtland's flag?

We have not received answer so far. However, two "banned" apparel items - a sweater and a T-shirt (see pictures) with Wirtland's flag - disappeared from our shop, despite our immediate request to abstain from removing our products until clarification of all questions. We hope Zazzle will solve the problem soon, and believe the company must hold responsibility for ungrounded banning our products. We will keep you informed. In the meantime, wear your Wirtland flag with pride!

Media attention to Wirtland is growing in Bulgaria

Bulgarian radio, magazines and even regional newspapers have paid much attention to Wirtland during the recent weeks. On March 24 the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) interviewed Ruma, one of Wirtland's citizens who earlier this year appeared in live television show on Bulgarian television. Ruma's interview was published on BNR's site (link), reposted by printed media, and translated to several languages (French version here, Russian version here). Simultaneously, an article on Wirtland's Gold Coin Project was published by "PC World" (Bulgarian edition), which was also re-posted by several other mass media. A large 1.5 page general review on Wirtland was also published in a regional Bulgarian newspaper "Zname", featuring an interview with Alexander Popov, citizen of Wirtland from the city of Pazardzhik, Bulgaria.