Trademarks
Location
Williman Room
Event Website
http://htlj.org/symposium/schedule/
Start Date
23-1-2015 2:30 PM
End Date
23-1-2015 3:14 PM
Description
Open source and free culture communities have struggled with trademark law for most of their existence. Trademark law requires centralized control and strict licensing procedures, whereas open collaboration relies on decentralized control and a sharing ethos. At the Wikimedia Foundation, we have reconciled this tension by developing our trademark policy with the Wikimedia community through a seven-month long consultation. The comments from the community led to many changes in the draft policy and a discussion with more words than in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The result is a short, clear policy written in common language that is designed to enable the mission of Wikimedia. In this talk we will discuss the development of this policy, as well as the underlying tension between trademarks and open collaboration.
Media Format
flash_audio
Trademarks
Williman Room
Open source and free culture communities have struggled with trademark law for most of their existence. Trademark law requires centralized control and strict licensing procedures, whereas open collaboration relies on decentralized control and a sharing ethos. At the Wikimedia Foundation, we have reconciled this tension by developing our trademark policy with the Wikimedia community through a seven-month long consultation. The comments from the community led to many changes in the draft policy and a discussion with more words than in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The result is a short, clear policy written in common language that is designed to enable the mission of Wikimedia. In this talk we will discuss the development of this policy, as well as the underlying tension between trademarks and open collaboration.
https://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/chtlj_symposia/open/williman/2
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