Daniel Mayer wrote:
--- Delirium delirium@hackish.org wrote:
What trademark violation is going on here? Trademark law only prohibits commercial use of a trademark for a competing product in the same market.
Trademark law does not only prohibit commercial use. Any use which dilutes a mark in a particular market is a potential violation. Using a mark that implies an official connection when no such connection exists is also a potential violation.
That's incorrect. Trademark law does not protect dilution---that's dilution law, a more recent, less internationally standardized, and much different beast, and it only applies to "famous" marks like Coca-Cola (so you can't name your company Coca-Cola even if you don't make beverages, because it's a famous mark subject to dilution law). It's unclear that Wikinews is a sufficiently famous mark to qualify for dilution protection.
-Mark