[Juriwiki-l] Re: [Foundation-l] Trademark violation of our 'MediaWiki' mark
Alexandre Dulaunoy
alexandre.dulaunoy at ael.be
Sat Oct 29 08:23:17 UTC 2005
On Sat, 29 Oct 2005, Jean-Baptiste Soufron wrote:
> Arne Klempert wrote:
> > On 10/28/05, Jean-Baptiste Soufron <jbsoufron at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> After looking at it, they are clearly trying to induce confusion between
> >> their wiki offer, the gnu gpl software mediawiki, wikipedia, wiktionnary
> >> and wikiquote.
> >
> > The text is a little bit confusing ("the new product" might sound like
> > it's their product), but I see no reason for your "trying to induce"
> > thing. And I really don't see any trademark violation here. Of course
> > we have to defend our trademarks but we also should avoid trademark
> > paranoia.
>
> Well, a good first step would be mentioning that mediawiki is a
> registered trademark from another company, and clearly explaining that
I can't find any registered trademark regarding Mediawiki on the
uspto.gov website. I know that trademark registration is not always
mandatory but just wondering.
> is a third party software that they did not develop.
If they fully comply with the GNU General Public License[1], I can't
see the issue. It won't be the first time that a front-cover web page
is trying to induce confusion regarding a free software (did you
remember the Dansguardian issue ? (look at their download page)).
[1] Can someone make a verification that they comply with the GNU GPL
?
> When you look here :
> http://www.cheaphostingdirectory.com/news-webhosting-provider-aplus-net-launches-media-wiki-1538.html
>
>
> As you say he actual text is confusing, which is exactly the criteria
> for trademark violations. I don't say we should hurry to the courts, but
> we should ask them to be more precise.
Wouldn't be better to focus only on the GNU GPL compliance than
"playing" with trademark stuff (as this is a different battle field
;-) ?
just my 0.02 EUR,
adulau
--
** Alexandre Dulaunoy (adulau) **** http://www.foo.be/ **** 0x44E6CBCD
**/ "To disable the Internet to save EMI and Disney is the moral
**/ equivalent of burning down the library of Alexandria to ensure the
**/ livelihood of monastic scribes." Jon Ippolito.
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