[Foundation-l] Status report on logo copyright issues at Swedish Wikipedia

[Mike Godwin]

Dear folks,

I was attending a meeting of the Northern California Copyright Society
today, and I mentioned to a colleague the discussions we have had on this
list and elsewhere regarding whether the Wikimedia logos, which are
trademarked, should be freely licensed as copyrighted works.  My colleague
immediately said this: "Do they realize that if you freely license the
trademarked logo, that may be interpreted by a court in trademark litigation
as abandonment of the trademark?"

Me:  "Well, I've tried to suggest this, but perhaps I haven't said it
clearly enough. There's a tendency for some non-lawyers to assume that
trademark issues are wholly and necessarily separate from copyright issues."

Colleague: "Well, you'd better tell them that freely licensing the logos
might undermine your ability to defend your trademarks in them."

And so, here I am, telling you just that.


Best regards,


--Mike