[Foundation-l] Re: Registering Wikimedia trademarks

Thu Apr 29 18:14:43 UTC 2004

Michael Snow wrote:

>Toby Bartels wrote:

>>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.

That seems right; so we should indeed look into registration.
With PhatNav, we may need it.  But at the same time, we should also
start telling them that it's a trademark right now, since it is.
If nothing else, a reply from PhatNav that they don't give a darn
about our unregistered trademark will make the need for registration
clear.

>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.

You give a choice between "just claiming" the trademark and registering it.
But /claiming/ is not what makes anything a trademark in the first place.
According to Wikipedia's articles, it's the /usage/ that does this.
Because the Wikimedia Foundation (and Jimbo Wales, and the Wikipedians)
is the organisation that in fact has used the invented term "Wikipedia"
to distinguish Wikipedia from other encyclopaedias in the world,
that makes the term "Wikipedia" a trademark, currently unregistered.
The purpose of /claiming/ a trademark is to inform people about the facts.
The purpose of registring it is to facilitate legal defence of the mark.

So, "Wikipedia" /is/ a trademark, so we should /claim/ that it is one now.
Meanwhile, we should look into registration as well, and assess the likely
costs and benefits, to make a decision as to whether registration is worth it,
and if so when and in what jurisdictions.

IANAL, and my opinions are based on the Wikipedia articles that I cited before.
As with all Wikipedia articles, YAMV (your accuracy may vary ^_^).

-- Toby