[Foundation-l] Derivatives of the official logos

Tue Aug 22 12:29:12 UTC 2006

Tomasz Ganicz wrote:
> 2006/8/22, Tisza Gergő <tgergo at inf.elte.hu>:
>   
> All logos and names of the Wikimedia projects are property of
> Wikimedia Foundation. Therefore, at the moment,  at least formally you
> have to ask Wikimedia Foundation to use them outside Wikimedia
> projects, as there is no any clear official policy who and how can
> use it. It also apply to derivatives of logos. In fact, the only
> formal body which may give you permission to use logos or names is
> Wikimedia Board, although there is:
>
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_committees#Trademarks_committee
>
> which I don't know if it exists or not at the moment, but anyway it is
> going to be a kind of advisory body for logos and names issues for
> Wikimedia Board
>
>   
You raise a serious and valid question which is unsettled right now.  
Numerous portals have crafted icons which they use to identify their 
pages; these are derivative works of the Foundation's logo.  The 
Foundation has not decided whether or not to (a) acquire these marks 
directly (b) prevent the use of these marks (c) require licensing of 
these marks.  Some of them are quite clever, others are awful, to be candid.

This is one of many issues which will be considered by the Board as part 
of its strategic planning retreat in October.  For now, we will have to 
stay in limbo.

-Brad