[Foundation-l] Registering Wikimedia trademarks

Thu Apr 29 00:13:39 UTC 2004

> Have we tried telling them "Wikipedia is a trademark
> of the Wikimedia Foundation" yet?

Like so many others, IANAL, but I've seen statements to the following 
effect: "(term one) is a trademark, and (term two) is a registered 
trademark, of (company name)."  So there's definitely a difference.

I would strongly suggest placing some kind of statement in the 
copyright notice of the board, stating that "Wikipedia" is a trademark 
of the Wikimedia Foundation.  When I first became aware of the project, 
I was confused about the definitions of the terms "wikiwiki" and 
"Wikipedia" -- for whatever reason, I innocently thought that they were 
synonymous.  (Kinda like xeroxing is now a common verb, even if you're 
not using a Xerox machine.)  I even started referring to my own new 
Star Trek wiki as "a Star Trek wikipedia".  (I of course quickly 
changed all uses of that term when the error was pointed out to me!)

I'd just like to point out that, since Wikipedia /is/ the biggest wiki 
out there (probably, anyway), then it could just be an innocent 
misunderstanding.  A statement that Wikipedia is a trademark would go a 
long way towards fixing that problem.

Just my 2¢, of course. :-)

Dan Carlson