Mailing List Archive

Wikimedia Foundation logo policy
Today there was a question in the Dutch Pub about whether a certain
website would be allowed to use the wikipedia logo. I don't want to go
into details, not do I want an answer now, but I just wanted to check
it on the official Logo Policy of the WMF.

I searched on the for me most logical place, [[m:logo]], and found,
after a lot of searching and help through IRC, these urls:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Logo_and_trademark_policy
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikimedia_visual_identity_guidelines

The second is policy, and deals a lot on *how* to use the logo. Was
nice, but not for the questions i needed an answer on. I needed to
know *when* a company, foundation, community, person is allowed to use
the logo. The first appeared not to be official policy. It was usefull
in principle, but I couldn't direct people to there, as it wasn't
official. (can't check because of db-down when it was last changed)

To my best knowledge, there is already quite some time a trademark
committee (since february 2006?), of whom I thikn they could be taking
care of this.

Is there a reason why this policy is waiting this long? Is the
foundation currently working on this, is there already a resolution
waiting maybe even? Is the Trademark committee indeed responsible and
working on this issue? I don't want the proposal to be half-good, but
I want the discussion going on, and get a good result as soon as it is
possible. I hope this is something that hase not disappeared from your
thoughts yet.

Greetz, Lodewijk
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Re: Wikimedia Foundation logo policy [ In reply to ]
effe iets anders wrote:
> Today there was a question in the Dutch Pub about whether a certain
> website would be allowed to use the wikipedia logo. I don't want to go
> into details, not do I want an answer now, but I just wanted to check
> it on the official Logo Policy of the WMF.
>
> I searched on the for me most logical place, [[m:logo]], and found,
> after a lot of searching and help through IRC, these urls:
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Logo_and_trademark_policy
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikimedia_visual_identity_guidelines
>
> The second is policy, and deals a lot on *how* to use the logo. Was
> nice, but not for the questions i needed an answer on. I needed to
> know *when* a company, foundation, community, person is allowed to use
> the logo. The first appeared not to be official policy. It was usefull
> in principle, but I couldn't direct people to there, as it wasn't
> official. (can't check because of db-down when it was last changed)
>
> To my best knowledge, there is already quite some time a trademark
> committee (since february 2006?), of whom I thikn they could be taking
> care of this.

Hello Effe.

They could have, but actually did not.

> Is there a reason why this policy is waiting this long? Is the
> foundation currently working on this, is there already a resolution
> waiting maybe even? Is the Trademark committee indeed responsible and
> working on this issue? I don't want the proposal to be half-good, but
> I want the discussion going on, and get a good result as soon as it is
> possible. I hope this is something that hase not disappeared from your
> thoughts yet.

There is infortunately no resolution cooking as of today. We listed the
issue as one of the topic to discuss at the board retreat.
If you have ideas or a "draft" of concept to provide to help us proceed,
it will be welcome.

> Greetz, Lodewijk


Cheers
ant

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Re: Wikimedia Foundation logo policy [ In reply to ]
2006/9/27, Anthere <Anthere9@yahoo.com>:
<snip>
> There is infortunately no resolution cooking as of today. We listed the
> issue as one of the topic to discuss at the board retreat.
> If you have ideas or a "draft" of concept to provide to help us proceed,
> it will be welcome.
</snip>

Unfortunately indeed. I know there is a draft on
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Logo_and_trademark_policy , and it
might be a nice concept, but I think it would be best if it would be
discussed by those who have studied for this, the lawyers among us,
and maybe also others who are interested. I am for sure interested,
but i think the legal work should be done first. In principle the idea
of thecurrent draft looks OK to me (use of logo on small scale and NC
is allowed, commercial needs permission from WMF or authorized agent
etc), but the language might have to change (unless "stuff" is
legally a clear definition ;-)) Maybe the Chief legal officer and/or
brad could take a look at it?

Lodewijk
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Re: Wikimedia Foundation logo policy [ In reply to ]
Can I just add we really need a logo policy. My personal press email
address seems to have made its way onto people's lists of 'how to
contact Wikipedia', and so I get these questions. I *should* be able
to give them a simple answer quickly. I can't. That's bad - it wastes
my time and theirs.

I hardly care what the policy is as long as there is one.


- d.
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