[Foundation-l] Possible trademark infringement

[George Herbert]

On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 7:36 AM, Troy McConaghy <troy.mcconaghy at gmail.com>wrote:

> It's my understanding that if you don't defend your trademark, you risk
> losing it.
>
> That said, I don't think "Wookiepedia" is one of the Foundation's
> trademarks. It's neither spelled nor pronounced the same as Wikipedia.
>
> - Troy
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 4:35 AM, jamesmikedupont at googlemail.com <
> jamesmikedupont at googlemail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I would like to thank you for sharing this link, because now I am more
> > informed about Yoda, Darth Vader and the force, that made my day!
> >
> > mike
>

IANAL, but:

The most important element is whether another entity using the trademark is
appearing to  be associated with the organization owning it, in the same
business, etc.

Wikipedia Review is clearly NOT associated with Wikipedia - it's a criticism
and discussion site about us, but not of us.

Wookiepedia is an informational wiki (similar "business"), but it's very
narrow focused (Star Wars info / fans), and the name is a clear and
intentional pun.  Nobody is going to mistake it for a Wikipedia project,
because the pun's so clear.

The Wikipedia Art people were connecting to us for article links, which
could confuse people as to whether they were us or part of us or not, and
given the direct connection and the direct identical name use were a
infringement.


-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com