[Foundation-l] Trademarks

[Mike Godwin]

Delirium writes:

>> I would personally hope that our main interest in the trademarks is  
>> not
>> their commercial value, but their usefulness in furthering our stated
>> charitable mission, by reducing confusion on the part of potential  
>> users
>> and reusers of our content.

You needn't worry on that score. I think you probably understood the  
reference to "commercial value" as an indication of an effort on the  
Foundation's part to completely exploit Wikimedia trademarks for  
commercial purposes.  In reality, we mostly don't take advantage of  
opportunities to do that, but we need to secure the trademarks anyway  
to ensure that other entities don't misleadingly employ our trademarks  
in commercial ways.

That said, we do look at business opportunities in which we promote  
our mission through licensing of our trademarks to a partner --  
typically a partner that provides access to Wikimedia project  
reference materials or that supports our own capacity to provide such  
access.  We also reserve the right to license the trademark for the  
production of things Wikimedians tend to want, like T-shirts and  
coffee mugs.

Without criticizing Mozilla at all, I'll note that we're not that much  
like Mozilla in the scale on which license trademarks commercially.  
It's probably difficult for anyone outside the Foundation to imagine  
the sheer number of licensing opportunities we turn down on a daily or  
weekly basis. I've also been told that, in comparison to other  
nonprofits that hold commercially valuable trademarks, we're  
remarkably *un*aggressive in policing them.  You might almost think  
the Foundation's legal strategy were being run by a free-speech lawyer.


--Mike