[Foundation-l] Re: Registering Wikimedia trademarks

Thu Apr 29 05:09:23 UTC 2004

Toby Bartels wrote:

>>This brings up again the issue of whether we should start registering 
>>trademarks belonging to the Wikimedia Foundation. Without necessarily 
>>resorting to threats of legal action, I think it would be far more 
>>effective if we can tell people "Wikipedia is a registered trademark of 
>>the Wikimedia Foundation" instead of just "Please do not use the name 
>>Wikipedia on your website as if it was the name of your encyclopedia". 
>>Trademark registration is something people will recognize and respect. 
>>They will generally respond more quickly, and they will be more likely 
>>to comply, even if the person notifying them is not in an "official" 
>>capacity.
>>    
>>
>Have we tried telling them "Wikipedia is a trademark
>of the Wikimedia Foundation" yet?  How did it work?
>Why do we think that adding the adjective "registered"
>will make it work better?
>
I don't know what we've tried telling them. The case on wikien-l that 
precipitated this discussion was PhatNav.com, and Timwi contacted them 
in an unofficial capacity, but I don't know what exactly he said. Also, 
PhatNav is perhaps the worst of our forks in terms of complying with the 
GFDL. For people like that, the fewer excuses we leave them, the better.

Simply asserting that something is a trademark can be an effective 
approach with many people. But  just claiming a trademark does not 
necessarily make it one. Being able to say that it's registered means 
that it's recognized by the Patent and Trademark Office. In a sense, it 
makes the trademark "official", although the courts and not the PTO have 
the final say on what is a trademark.

--Michael Snow