On wikipedia-l, Ed Poor raised the question of PhatNav (one of the many
sites that copy us) calling itself "a Wikipedia". As Jimbo indicated,
this is something we need to guard against, otherwise we risk losing
trademark protection for the Wikipedia name.
This brings up again the issue of whether we should start registering
trademarks belonging to the Wikimedia Foundation. Without necessarily
resorting to threats of legal action, I think it would be far more
effective if we can tell people "Wikipedia is a registered trademark of
the Wikimedia Foundation" instead of just "Please do not use the name
Wikipedia on your website as if it was the name of your encyclopedia".
Trademark registration is something people will recognize and respect.
They will generally respond more quickly, and they will be more likely
to comply, even if the person notifying them is not in an "official"
capacity.
The filing fee for a trademark application is US $335 (I'm assuming we
would start by registering in the US). We should at least consider
registering trademarks for Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikiquote,
Wikisource, and Wikibooks. Granted, with our current financial resources
it may not be practical to try and register all of our trademarks in
every country we reach. But US registration is an important start, and
would facilitate international registrations later. Given the exposure
we're getting, I think registering Wikipedia as a trademark is
particularly critical.
--Michael Snow