On 28/11/05, Scott Keir <scottkeir(a)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(a)dunelm.org.uk