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