[Foundation-l] Re: Registering Wikimedia trademarks

[Toby Bartels]

Michael Snow wrote:

>Angela wrote:

>The last time this came up, somebody indicated that the fee in Germany
>was 300 euros. I haven't confirmed this, but it was also stated that
>registration would be valid for the entire EU. If so, presumably the fee
>would be the same whether we registered in Germany, France, or someplace
>else? I would still register in the US first, because the foundation is
>based in the US.

If we register in the EU, then that's 25 countries come Saturday.
But watch out for the Turks in northern Cyprus; they might infringe!
(Just a little topical geopolitical humour. ^_^)

>The 335 US dollars is a filing fee to apply for registration of a single
>trademark, and I'm guessing 300 euros is the same thing. The more
>trademarks we want to register, the more it might cost us. Of all our
>possible trademarks, I think Wikipedia is the most critical, so we
>should probably start there and then consider the others.

With both names and jurisdictions, our determination of what is critical
should be based on the specific legal needs that present themselves to us.
For example, if PhatNav refuses to respect our trademark without legal action,
then we'll need to register the terms that PhatNav is infriniging upon
in whatever jurisdiction will have the greatest effect upon PhatNav.
And if PhatNav is the first immediate problem, then that would determine
what and where we register first.

I agree that in all probability, this will be "Wikipedia" and the US.
So my point is not to criticise your prediction of what's most effective;
just to say that the decision shouldn't be ruled by theoretical estimates
but by the practical facts on the ground.

>Additionally, Toby mentions (based on our own content) that attorney
>fees for filing the application could be $800 to $1500. But I think
>Jimbo might decide to see if somebody will do it pro bono, since
>Wikimedia is a nonprofit.

That's a good point.  These numbers should not scare us away
from looking into registration and finding a way to do it.
They should only make us realise that registration is a big deal,
so we should not wait for registration to start asserting our rights
to our trademarks.

>>Jamesday has suggested that registering the trademarks
>>are probably not really needed for protection as the
>>name is quite well known now. For domain names, the
>>uniform domain name dispute policy requires that the
>>name be registered and used in good faith. Stealing a
>>Wikipedia name is bad faith and makes any site likely
>>to lose.

>I'm not sure that I agree with Jamesday as to how well known we are yet.
>In certain circles, yes, but we're only starting to really get
>mainstream media coverage, and Wikipedia is hardly a household name
>offline. I may be misunderstanding his point here, since it's filtered
>through Angela, but the purpose of trademark registration would be more
>than just to keep somebody from using, say, wikipedia.fr as a domain name.

Domain names are well protected and not likely to be any problem.
But besides that, protection still may not need registration.
If Jamesday is suggesting that we don't need to look into registration,
then I disagree; the more we know about what registration would take,
the better our position is to decide if and when and how we want it.
But if Jamesday is suggesting that we should use the protection
that we have now, then I agree.  We should start by asserting our claims.

Now if we really want to spark controversy: Add a little "TM" to our logo! ^_^


-- Toby