Mailing List Archive

Generally speaking logos are trademarks, they may not be "registered"
trademarks
with the USPTO, but they are still protected by "common law" (droit commun,
comme
le droit coutumier) even if statutory protection has not been afforded, and
even if
someone else files to use those as trademarks WMF can then oppose their use
if
they can prove that the foundation was using that logo as a trademark prior
to the
filing of the third party. I think the issue is: are all marks (logos,
wordmarks, or any
other trade dress that might identify WMF projects and activities)
copyrighted by
the foundation, as it seems to me that there is a controversy about who, if
anyone
owns the copyright of some WMF logos (such as the MediaWiki logo) are they
public domain (since they are generic) or are they GFDL/CC (as that is what
every
author agrees to when they upload their content to WMF servers. If the later
is
true the question is: does fair use under trademark law constrict the rights
granted
under any open source license that might allow copying, but not in relation
to
"in commerce" use of the mark or under any applicable "anti-dillution" law
in
any relevant jurisdiction that might apply if someone uses these marks in a
way
that confuses end users or consumers as to the origin of any work that uses
the
logo.

Alex T. Roshuk

----- Original Message -----
From: "florencedevouard" <anthere@anthere.org>
To: "Legal issues of Wikimedia (closed subscription)"
<juriwiki-l@wikimedia.org>
Cc: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List" <foundation-l@wikimedia.org>;
"Communications Committee" <wmfcc-l@mail.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2006 7:58 PM
Subject: Re: [Juriwiki-l] Commons reuse FAQ updated


| Wikimedia Foundation Logos
| The Wikimedia Foundation logo and logos for particular projects (such as
| Wikipedia and Commons) are trademarks of and copyrighted by the
| Wikimedia Foundation. They are not generally available for other uses,
| though reuse in press or media about Wikimedia projects is explicitly
| permitted. Local "fair use" or "fair dealing" laws (e.g. for academic or
| critical purposes) may also apply in your jurisdiction.
|
| I'll be careful about that.
| In particular, not all logos are trademarked by the Foundation. Maybe a
| twist could be made to the text to make a reference to trademarks,
| whilst not claiming all are tms ?
|
| ---------
|
| I otherwise moved text around in what seemed to me more clear. I hope it
| is fine. Please change it back or discuss it if you do not agree.
|
| Ant
|
| PS: ey, good job David. I guess we are very near having a good page, to
| be translated, for content reuse.
|
|
|
| David Gerard wrote:
|
| >
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Reusing_content_outside_Wikimedia
| >
| >I've tweaked this and filled it out a bit. It's hard writing about
| >legal issues in very simple grammar; I'd like juriwiki-l in particular
| >to look over this and check that I haven't oversimplified,
| >particularly in the "how to comply with this licence" sections.
| >
| >The only section that hasn't been written yet is content under
| >GPL/LGPL - anyone think they can write two simple sentences on how to
| >comply with this licence?
| >
| >It should probably also be merged with the similar page on meta.
| >
| >
| >- d.
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