A group is threatening legal action & demanding payment for use of the bisexual pride flag

The bisexual pride flag.
Photo from: Wikimedia Commons

The organization BiNet USA is demanding payment for use of the bisexual pride flag – the pink, purple, and blue striped banner common at LGBTQ Prides all over the world.

On Twitter, the organization’s official account asked bisexual activist Jayne B. Shea to “get in touch so we can discuss your use of the bisexual pride flag without any money going to our organization.”

Related: Google unblocks ‘bisexual’ from list of banned search results

BiNet USA also asked Shea to remove the flag from her social media accounts and website. On her site, she sells T-shirts and other products with various designs that use the colors of the bisexual pride flag, like unicorns or the word “visiBIlity.”

“We know this is a lot so we hope we can work a new deal,” the organization cheerily tweeted.

In further tweets, the organization asked people “to help us out” and report unlicensed uses of the bisexual pride flag.

“The copyright of the flag is solely BiNet USA’s,” the organization claimed.

According to Randy Young’s “Flags of the World” website, the bisexual pride flag was created by activist Michael Page for BiCafe’s anniversary party in 1998.

In a personal correspondence to the website, Page said that his flag was “simply an evolution of the pink and blue triangles,” an earlier symbol for bisexual pride that wasn’t scalable, so he designed what we know today as the bisexual pride flag.

The website attributes a trademark for the flag to Page in 1999. The nature of that trademark – and how it made its way from Page to BiNet USA – BiNet USA in 2020 is not explained on the website.

In 2006, an image of the bisexual pride flag was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons and…

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