This is certainly something that needed clarification, especially regarding current
trademark license deals like the one with MandrakeSoft. Thanks God I didn't mention
"Wikipedia" was a patented trademark in the draft though I was sur it was ...
Anyhow, any kind of trademark license will be clearer and safer with a patented
trademark.
villy
For clarification, I believe the current situation is
that we have
submitted the application to register Wikipedia as a trademark in the
US. The application was filed last month, but I don't believe it is
approved yet, as it still needs to be reviewed by the Patent and
Trademark Office and published to see if anyone objects to registration.
Actual registration can take up to a year or longer. We certainly
consider Wikipedia a trademark, whether registered or not, but I
recommend that people be careful not to claim that it is registered at
this point.
Once we have the initial registration in place, this should help us
expedite other registrations that may be necessary, such as the EU.
Based on international agreements, I believe that once the trademark is
recognized, additional registrations can be backdated to the earliest
registration date.
As far as I know, trademark registration is not necessary in order to
register domain names anywhere. However, it may be helpful in recovering
squatted domain names.
--Michael Snow
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