The Original Sweden: home to icy tundras, epic scenery and the Northern Lights.
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If you’ve not visited it most likely brings to mind Abba, IKEA and, for tennis fans of a certain age, Björn Borg. If you have visited, you’re just as likely to remember it for its mouthwatering sticky cinnamon buns and fika, the hard-to-define national state of mind that might be lazily translated as ‘taking a coffee and cake break’.
Such familiarities don’t appear, however, to be enough to sate the concerns of the country’s tourism board. So hell bent are they on protecting Sweden’s national identity that they’ve become the first country in the world to apply to trademark its name. This application to the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) is, according to the tourist board, “to protect its name from international duplicates that might confuse unsuspecting travelers who want to experience the original Sweden.”
Welcome to Sweden—no, not that one
The obvious question here is why, exactly? The simple answer is that there are, in fact, several places in the world called Sweden. News to many of us, sure. Not so much to the residents of the peaceful 34-square-mile town of Sweden located in Monroe County, upstate New York around an hour’s drive from Niagara Falls. Nor indeed to the 577 residents of New Sweden in Aroostook County, Maine.
And that’s before we get to the other five Swedens around the world – including an unlikely Indonesian Sweden where most residents have never seen snow, let alone spent much of their lives surrounded by it.
Welcome to New Sweden, Maine where fika isn’t a way of life, although you may still find flat-pack … [+] furniture.
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But there’s only one, original Sweden, and the Swedes want us all to know it. Says Susanne Andersson, CEO at Visit Sweden, “It’s flattering that others want to be called Sweden, but we’d prefer if there was only one. Our Sweden. The one with the lakes, islands, forests, and the world’s best flat-pack furniture.”
While the more cynical among us may see this as a mere marketing ploy to drum up tourism, the Swedish tourist board claims research it has carried out proves their concerns. Hapless travelers may book a Swedish holiday only to board the wrong plane to the wrong Sweden and end up somewhere with the same name but none of the Scandi charm.
Such concern isn’t without precedent—there are many famous stories of vacationers making just such mishaps. These include everything from travelers ending up in Edmonton, North London rather than Edmonton in Canada to soccer fans aiming for Lille in France only to arrive in Lille in Belgium and miss their intended game.
If you make it to the original Sweden, don’t miss the Kanelbulle cinnamon sweet buns, great with a … [+] cup of coffee.
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And with 28 Londons and dozens of Americas around the world, not to mention the 15 towns called Norway in the U.S. alone, Sweden could be kickstarting a whole new trademarking trend. But let’s hope not.
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Publish date : 2024-11-15 12:20:00
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