Recently ran across a site, http://assignmine.com/, that's using a banner ad describing itself as "Wikipedia for assignments." (Will be happy to send a screenshot upon request.) Seems to me that this would be an issue with use of the trademark, but what would generally be the position on this?
Recently ran across a site, http://assignmine.com/, that's using a banner ad describing itself as "Wikipedia for assignments." (Will be happy to send a screenshot upon request.) Seems to me that this would be an issue with use of the trademark, but what would generally be the position on this?
It sounds like they're comparing themselves to Wikipedia rather than calling themselves Wikipedia, so it's not too bad. I'm not an expert on trademark law, though, so I don't know if it's allowed.
On 5/11/07, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
Recently ran across a site, http://assignmine.com/, that's using a banner ad describing itself as "Wikipedia for assignments." (Will be happy to send a screenshot upon request.) Seems to me that this would be an issue with use of the trademark, but what would generally be the position on this?
It sounds like they're comparing themselves to Wikipedia rather than calling themselves Wikipedia, so it's not too bad. I'm not an expert on trademark law, though, so I don't know if it's allowed.
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Thanks, wasn't quite sure how that would work myself, trademark law's slippery at best.
Todd Allen wrote:
Recently ran across a site, http://assignmine.com/, that's using a banner ad describing itself as "Wikipedia for assignments.
It sounds like they're comparing themselves to Wikipedia rather than calling themselves Wikipedia, so it's not too bad. I'm not an expert on trademark law, though, so I don't know if it's allowed.
Definitely a no-no. Try advertising your business as "The Cadillac of Widgets", and you can expect lawyers from General Motors to send you nastygrams talking about dilution of their trademark's value. Of course, we're certainly free to give explicit permission for such uses to those we feel worthy.
I agree with Daniel here. The trademark holder has the specific right to control the usage and to stop any unauthorized usage at anytime with the threat of legal proceedings. It really is not a good idea for such owners to allow even the smallest things because they can give both negative (and positive) PR to the owner.
This really isn't allowed. :)
Casey Brown
-----Original Message----- From: foundation-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:foundation-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Lee Daniel Crocker Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2007 2:00 AM To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Question regarding trademarks
Todd Allen wrote:
Recently ran across a site, http://assignmine.com/, that's using a banner ad describing itself as "Wikipedia for assignments.
It sounds like they're comparing themselves to Wikipedia rather than calling themselves Wikipedia, so it's not too bad. I'm not an expert on trademark law, though, so I don't know if it's allowed.
Definitely a no-no. Try advertising your business as "The Cadillac of Widgets", and you can expect lawyers from General Motors to send you nastygrams talking about dilution of their trademark's value. Of course, we're certainly free to give explicit permission for such uses to those we feel worthy.
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