Daniel Mayer wrote:
--- Delirium <delirium(a)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