[Foundation-l] The EFF appears to be somewhat upset by the foundation

[Thomas Dalton]

2009/4/23 geni <geniice at gmail.com>:
> "Can a noncommercial critical website use the trademark of the entity
> it critiques in its domain name? Surprisingly, it appears that the
> usually open-minded folks at Wikipedia think not."
>
> http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/wikipedia-threatens-
>
> While I would regard the title of the article as misleading this is
> going to be something of a PR problem.
>
> Legally I've not looked at it closely and trademark isn't my thing
> although there may be potential to annoy everyone by arguing that the
> well documented existence of the "wikipedia loves art" err brand means
> there are potential passing off issues.

This is a very interesting case. My layman's view is that their
lawyers make some excellent points. Obviously, I haven't seen Mike
Godwin's comments on the subject (Wikipedia Art hasn't published them
due to not having his permission) and I can't really judge the
arguments having only seen one side, but at first glance it seems to
be legitimate fair use (or whatever the legal term is).