On 28/11/05, Scott Keir scottkeir@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
I'm sorry I couldn't be there yesterday - please could those who were there explain a bit more what the issue is/was with incorporating as "Wikimedia UK", as it is not clear to me from what's posted to date what the issues is/are. Otherwise we might suggest alternatives that fall prey to the same trap!
Basically, we want to trade (operate) as Wikimedia UK. However, we want to do so /by permission of the Foundation/ - they hold the name, and so we probably need their permission to avoid nasty legal tangles.
We can't incorporate as Wikimedia UK, though, because: a) the Foundation can't grant permission to use the name until the company exists b) if someone takes over the company later, by whatever means, we want the Foundation to be able to stop them using the Wikimedia name.
The latter strongly means that you don't want to have it actually named Wikimedia UK, but rather something innocuous. There's no problems with taking an organisation of whatever name and allowing them to operate under another, so long as it's made clear it's an "assumed name". We'd use "Wikimedia UK" this way, as I understand it.
-- - Andrew Gray andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk