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Toby Bartels wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid20040503201536.64B73138B24@mail.wikimedia.org">
<pre wrap="">Peter Jaros wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Then (realizing YANAL) is there any risk in waiting until someone truly
pushes the issue to register?
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->I don't believe that waiting weakens our claim, so long as it's true in fact
that the name "Wikipedia" is associated with us and that we defend this.
I mean that we would have to prove these facts regardless of whether we wait.</pre>
</blockquote>
One potential risk in waiting is that we could be denied registration
because somebody else had already registered the trademark themselves.
The US Patent & Trademark Office generally will only check that
there are no conflicting registered marks. They will not investigate to
make sure that nobody else is using the mark. Instead, they provide
"notice" to the public by publishing applications, and if someone
raises legitimate objections, then the mark is not registered.<br>
<br>
This may not be all that likely, but the possibility should at least be
considered. Hopefully anyone using the term "Wikipedia" in a way that
would conflict with our trademark will come to our attention pretty
quickly. And they would almost certainly not be using the term in good
faith. But if somebody did manage to register "Wikipedia" ahead of us,
while the registration might eventually be overturned, it would take a
lot more effort, including almost certainly a lawsuit.<br>
<br>
And yes, I have checked for wiki-related trademarks. There are actually
several, mostly around the term "wiki wiki". Nothing I could find
conflicts with anything we could claim right now. The only
computer-related filing was "Wikipad" for software, and that seems to
have been abandoned without becoming registered.<br>
<br>
--Michael Snow<br>
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