[Wikimedia Brasil] WF Trademarks - Unauthorized registration attempt in Brazil

[Joaquim Mariano da Costa Neto]

Dear Michael Godwin,

    I am a Brazilian wikipedian
and I am beginning to work with our team of local volunteers. I am
writing to inform you some issues related to trademarks that may
belong to the Wikimedia Foundation.

    In Brazil, the Industrial
Property National Institute (INPI - Instituto Nacional da Propriedade
Industrial) is the federal department in charge of registering and
controlling the intellectual property (which includes trademarks).

    Yesterday, after a brief
research at the INPI website, I found that two Brazilian companies
are trying to register at INPI some trademarks that may belong to the
Wikimedia Foundation. In 2006 and 2007, these two companies filed at
the INPI the requests for registering the following trademarks: www.wikipedia.com.br and wikipédia. It is important to
notice that one of the companies is not trying to register the domain
wikipedia.com.br: the company is just trying to register a trademark
that uses the expression www.wikipedia.com.br (with a specific
logotype). I list below the trademarks that may belong to the
Wikimedia Foundation and the names of the respective companies that
filed the related requests for registering (with the INPI file
numbers and the dates of request in round brackets):
- www.wikipedia.com.br -
Web Use Serviços Ltda. ME (900080442) (10.nov.2006)
- wikipédia - Wikipédia
Distribuição de Conteúdo Eletrônico Ltda. (900632860)
(29.nov.2007)

    The Brazilian Internet
Steering Committee (CGI.br - Comitê Gestor da Internet no Brasil) is
the Brazilian federal department in charge of registering and
controlling the Brazilian Internet domains, with jurisdiction over
the country code top-level domain designated for Brazil (.br). The
CGI.br (which is not related to the INPI) made the domain
wikipedia.com.br unavailable for any entity other than Wikipedia.
Therefore, the current problem is not related to the registration of
the domain, but to the registration of the trademark that uses the
expression www.wikipedia.com.br.

    The requests in question are
still in analysis and the INPI did not decided to concede or refuse
the registrations.

    The Brazilian law states that
the request for registering a trademark may be opposed by proving
that similar or identical trademark already exists and is legally
registered. In other words, the Wikimedia Foundation may oppose the
requests filed by the above-mentioned companies at INPI.

    After the concession, the
registration may also be made null and void by proving that similar
or identical trademark exists and had been legally registered before
the request was filed.

    If you need any further
clarification, feel free to contact us. We are at your disposal to
help.

        Kind regards,

            Joaquim Mariano da Costa
Neto


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