[Juriwiki-l] Re: [Foundation-l] Trademark violation of our 'MediaWiki' mark

[Kelly Martin]

On 10/31/05, Rowan Collins <rowan.collins at gmail.com> wrote:
> Just to clarify, terms don't have to "be trademarked" to become a
> trademark; they simply have to be decalred (and defended) as such. You
> *can* "register" a trademark, and that carries extra weight in various
> legal ways, but (as I understand it) something basically becomes a
> trademark as soon as you declare it to be one.

A mark becomes a trademark as soon as it is "used in trade". 
Declaring it a trademark isn't enough; you have to actually use it in
trade.  In our case, publishing the MediaWiki software product
constitutes "use in trade".

I would also add that copyright ownership of a piece of software need
not have anything to do with ownership of the trademark.  MediaWiki is
published by and advertised by the Wikimedia Foundation; they're the
senior user of the mark in trade and thereby entitled to own the mark.

Kelly