[Foundation-l] Trademarks (Was: A local chapter without Wikimedians)

Mon Nov 24 23:11:20 UTC 2008

2008/11/24 Stephen Bain <stephen.bain at gmail.com>:
> On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 3:04 AM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> That's an interesting question. What is the current trademark
>> situation for the WMF?
>
> I don't think permanent links into Madrid Express are supported, but
> you can go here and search for "Wikimedia" under "mark":
>
> http://www.wipo.int/ipdl/en/search/madrid/search-struct.jsp
>
> "Wikimedia" was first registered in France and is now registered in a
> dozen countries.
>
> Note that there are some alternatives to having a registered trade
> mark - for example, in the common law countries, the action of passing
> off - which would likely protect the Wikimedia mark, known as it is
> now globally.

That's a very useful tool (if rather cryptic in its output), thank
you! If I'm reading it right, it looks like "Wikipedia" is registered
far more widely.