[Foundation-l] Foundation logo : pain and suffering

[Anthony]

On 11/16/06, ATR <alex756 at nyc.rr.com> wrote:
> Putting together those two elements creates a logo, and
> a logo is covered by statutory & common trademark law.
> The basis principle of trademark law is that the trademark
> belongs to whomever uses it, here it has been in use by the
> Wikimedia Foundation, it was created on its servers and it
> belongs to it, anyone, even board members of the WMF
> cannot suggest that it belongs to them or can be transfered to
> some kind of "public ownership" because they are not
> using it "in commerce" and never did. Correct me if I am
> wrong.  Otherwise it is Wikimedia Foundation that "owns"
> the logo, and all the underlying intellectual property rights
> to said logo, whatever such rights may be notwithstanding
> whatever anyone says or whatever they might have did,
> i..e., declaring such logo as being "public domain."
>
The Wikimedia Foundation doesn't "own" the logo.  They might own a
trademark on the logo.  They don't own the copyright on the original
logo, because they didn't create it, not even as a work for hire (the
author was not an employee at the time they created the image, and the
author did not "expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them
that the work shall be considered a work made for hire").

Whether or not the WMF owns the trademark is actually a more difficult
question.  A trademark doesn't actually belong "to whomever uses it",
in order to obtain a trademark it has to be used with some degree of
exclusivity.

Are others using the Mediawiki logo in commerce?  I would think there
probably are.  Is this use significant enough?  I have no idea.

Anthony