[Foundation-l] New Meta-Wiki logo - Approved?

[Robert Rohde]

On Sat, Sep 6, 2008 at 9:01 PM, David Levy <lifeisunfair at gmail.com> wrote:
> Samuel Klein wrote:
>
>> I can't see any reason why project logos cannot be PD, and personally
>> love the idea of massively collaborative projects having PD logos --
>> that makes sense to me.
>
> My understanding is that the Foundation doesn't (or didn't, at least)
> want anyone to be able to use its projects' logos for purposes other
> than identification of said projects.
>
> As I noted, the image in question can be legally used by anyone for
> any purpose without any conditions.  If Conservapedia wants to use it
> as their logo (provided that they make no claims of affiliation with
> Wikimedia), they can.  If a company wants to use it as a logo for
> their bottled water, laundry detergent, or insecticide (random
> examples), they can.  If a brothel wants to hang it over its door, it
> can.  If the KKK wants to use it to promote hate speech, it can.
>

I believe this is an incorrect description of trademark law.  You can
have an "Apple Computer", "Apple Records" and "Apple Dry Cleaning".
Each of them can have an apple image in their logo.  However, they
can't each have The Same apple image in their logo because the
specific logo still identifies a specific company.  In other words,
using the exact logo is by definition implying an association, just as
if they had used the word "Wikimedia" on their product.

-Robert Rohde