[Foundation-l] Trademarks

[Erik Moeller]

2008/11/25 Mike Godwin <mgodwin at wikimedia.org>:
> Your reasoning suggests (by analogy) that prosecutors who don't
> prosecute every single offense, or policemen who don't arrest everyone
> who might have committed offense, are somehow "contradictory" to
> upholding the law.  But that's not how the legal system works.  We all
> have legal rights and responsibilities, but, *just as important*, we
> can choose where and when we will invoke them.  That's not
> "contradictory" -- that's at the very least prudence, and, one hopes
> in the long run, it may even approach humanity and wisdom.

To add to what Mike says here: If someone applies for a right to use
our trademark, then yes, we have to exercise due diligence and make
sure it represents a product or service that we want to stand for with
our name. If they don't apply and just use the mark, we may or may not
be willing or able to enforce it, but it constitutes an unauthorized
use of our mark and we can fully disclaim responsibility for the
product or service it is used to represent. Take the recent example of
the SOS Children's DVD: We authorized use of the Wikipedia puzzle
globe and name for the product based on our pre-existing relationship
with them, and then people pointed fingers at us when they felt that
the organization wasn't interpreting the GFDL correctly or fairly.
Something that's made in your name is associated with you, whether you
like it or now.

Personally, I'm not a huge friend of IP law, but I've always felt that
the fundamental intentions of trademark law are benign and reasonable.
I think that the free culture movement has to carefully think about
middle ground approaches that make sense to meet the needs trademark
law tries to address, such as: ensuring that people understand the
difference between a product made or endorsed by us, and a product
made by someone else without our involvement. This is where approaches
such as secondary marks come in -- note the use of the puzzle piece in
our fundraiser buttons.
-- 
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation

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