Michael Snow wrote:

Neil Harris wrote:

...

I agree: there can be many partners, and there's no reason not to be partners with many people and organizations. But with the Wikipedia brand becoming more and more valuable, and official trademark recognition in the offing, there needs to be an official process for registration of Wikipedia/Wikimedia partners. In particular, I believe that the Foundation will have a legal requirement to defend its trademarks Real Soon Now, and not doing so risks losing the rights over that trademark and becoming a [[genericized trademark]].

Other organizations identifying us as their partners is not that great of a threat to trademark status, although it does create some potential for brand confusion. The scenario in which our trademarks would become genericized is if, for example, we allow anybody to call some wiki, or even a non-wiki reference site, a "wikipedia". That's the kind of situation that would really call for action.

That being said, we really can't complain about those people who call us "the" Wikipedia since that phrase has overtones of uniqueness.

Ec