[Foundation-l] Wikinews is giving out press credentials

Mon Nov 7 22:41:53 UTC 2005

On 11/7/05, Daniel Mayer <maveric149 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> --- Delirium <delirium at hackish.org> wrote:
> > What trademark violation is going on here? Trademark law only prohibits
> > commercial use of a trademark for a competing product in the same
> > market.
>
> Trademark law does not only prohibit commercial use. Any use which dilutes
> a
> mark in a particular market is a potential violation. Using a mark that
> implies
> an official connection when no such connection exists is also a potential
> violation.
>
> -- mav

There is federal trademark law and there is federal dilution law. Dilution
law requires the mark to be "famous", and doesn't require it to be used in a
competing sense. However, I believe it relies on the interstate commerce
clause (the copyright clause is unlikely to apply), and according to US Code
Section 1125 the dilution must be made "on or in connection with any goods
or services, or any container for goods". Even then there is still fair use.

So I'm not sure what you mean by "a potential violation", but I can't find
any dilution law which regulates non-commercial use. Maybe you could point
out some evidence that I just haven't found the law you're talking about.

Anthony