2006/4/23, THD <theodoranian(a)gmail.com>om>:
Hi,
There are some things different between Chinese characters and English word.
Every Chinese character has its own meaning. When we translate a foriegn
language into Chinese, sometimes we do it by meaning, but more often we use
characters with similar pronunciation for translation. Wiki is a generic
name, so it can't be a trade mark. In Chinese sphere, wiki can be translate
in many ways. Such as 維基 (now all the Wikimedia projects in Chinese
language, the first one pronunces as "wei", and the second pronunces as
"gee"), 圍紀(first "wei", second "gee"), and 維客(first
"wei" , second "ke")etc.
維基 is one of translations of the word "wiki", and it was chosen by Chinese
Wikipedians to be the only name of Chinese Wikipedia. Before Chinese
Wikipedian's choosing 維基 as the name, there was no famous name of wiki
technology. The problem is "if we don't register 維基, the Chinese Wikipedia
will face the challenge of changing its name (in Chinese)". Wikipedia is one
word, but 維基百科 have 4 characters. In Chinese text trade mark, the
government protect the usage of charater singly.When someone registers 維基,
other people can't use 維基 in their own trade mark. So the situation is not
the same.
THD
I am not into Chinese trademark law, but in general is it not a
defense against a claim of trademark violation that one used the
trademark continuously since BEFORE the person claiming violation used
it? I know that this is the case here in the Netherlands, there is
even the rule that if that other person knew about your previous use
of the trademark, their registration is considered mala fide, and can
be cancelled on those grounds.
--
Andre Engels, andreengels(a)gmail.com
ICQ: 6260644 -- Skype: a_engels