On Tue, September 23, 2008 13:28, Delphine Ménard
wrote:
Today, it might be interesting to revisit this
notion and see if
Wikimedia UK can register under the legal name of Wikimedia UK and
whether this does not constitute a liability.
I'd very strongly suggest not going down this route. Firstly as I get
tired of explaining to 'people' that Wikimedia-the-Chapter have no legal
responsibility for what Wikimedia-the-Foundation-and-projects get up to
and, sfaics using the name formally would just make that far far worse.
Secondly, our original reasoning that if something causes the Chapter to
need to be closed down and restarted (as, indeed, is currently proposed!)
then it makes things far easier to not have the name issue in the way*.
Alison
* one would end up with wonderful constructs such as "Wikimedia UK Ltd
(2008) t/a Wikimedia UK" etc
I'm going to agree with Alison here. It seems best to have "Wikimedia
UK" as just a trading name. In addition to the points Alison makes, I
don't see how we can use the trademark in our name before we've signed
a trademark agreement and we can't sign a trademark agreement until
there is a legal entity to sign it. It's a catch-22.