In this posting, we would like to share with you WMF’s practice going forward on the use of the Wikimedia trademarks for QR code-based or “Wikitown” projects. In the past, these projects have required negotiated trademark licenses with third parties like museums and towns. As some of you may be aware, we had been awaiting the results of the UK Wikimedia governance review, which was expected to address, in part, requests to WMF from two QR code projects using Wikimedia trademarks, Monmouthpedia and Gilbraltarpedia. That report has now been issued, and we have examined more closely our past practices and have assessed our resource capabilities. In light of this evaluation, we will continue to allow nominative, non-stylized use of the “Wikipedia” word mark, though we will not license other Wikimedia trademarks, like the stylized “Wikipedia” wordmark or the Wikipedia puzzle globe logo, to third-party organizations and governments in these cases. We set out some of our reasons below.

First, some quick background on QR codes (familiar to many of you, no doubt). A QR code is a type of barcode that can be scanned by a mobile device to quickly pull up encoded data, text and URLs. A display with a QR code may provide a short explanation to users of what the code will do and access, explaining essentially why the user should use the scan. For some, such a descriptive explanation, known as a “call-to-action,” may fall under certain QR code best practices.

QR code-based Wikipedia-inspired projects in museums, towns, and landmark sites often depend on a service to create QR codes (such as QRpedia) to redirect users to Wikipedia articles about objects or places of interest on their smartphones.[1] “Wikitowns” are towns or cities that place QR code plaques near that town’s notable locations to allow users to scan QR codes linking to relevant Wikipedia articles.

With this understanding, WMF will allow for “nominative” use of the non-stylized wordmark “Wikipedia” for QR code-based Wikipedia-inspired projects. That is, WMF will permit a plaque or label to make truthful nominative use of the word “Wikipedia” and display the text of the non-stylized word “Wikipedia” in a call-to-action. By “non-stylized,” we refer to the plain text version of the word “Wikipedia,” not the stylized version shown here.  That call-to-action may explain that the QR code will retrieve a Wikipedia article. Nominative use may include depiction of the non-stylized word “Wikipedia” within the context of a URL (such as shown here).[2] This limited use will not require a trademark license from WMF.

This practice is not uncommon within our community. For example, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis – which was a GLAM project – displays QR code plaques with the non-stylized but descriptive phrase “Wikipedia article”:

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis QR Code Plaque

The Derby Museum and Art Gallery – another GLAM project – does not display any text on the QR plaques themselves, but rather posts QR code instructions in various locations throughout the museum utilizing the non-stylized word “Wikipedia,” as seen in the image below:

Derby Museum QR Code Instruction

In short, these “nominative” uses are allowed, but displaying Wikimedia trademarks, such as the stylized version of the “Wikipedia” wordmark or the Wikipedia puzzle globe logo, will not be permitted. We are also unable to permit incorporating elements of our brand’s visual identity (such as the stylized font and the capitalized “A”) to third-party project logos. We believe that displaying the non-stylized, nominative use version of the word mark “Wikipedia” is enough to enable QR code projects to accurately describe their links and to ensure the success of the projects.

Our primary reason for this decision is limited team resources. Simply put, the growth of QR code projects and Wikitowns – which are principally off-site projects – has begun to stretch our capacity to offer trademark licenses to these projects. Our movement’s logos have earned a favorable place in the public consciousness over the years through the hard work of the Wikimedia community, and trademark license agreements are necessary to enable us to protect the Wikimedia projects’ reputation and goodwill. But the process can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. After negotiating a trademark agreement with a third party organization or municipality, WMF must also ensure a mechanism to oversee ongoing compliance with our movement’s high standards and values, and ensure that the third-party use continues to reflect positively on the hard work of Wikimedia contributors. As we continue to see new QR code projects in an ever-expanding pool of museums, historical sites, cities, and towns, we are not able to continue to individually evaluate, draft and negotiate licenses for these projects, as well as to monitor the conditions over the lifetime of the project.[3]

In summary, the truthful limited “nominative” use of the Wikipedia word mark strikes a balance between: (1) the need to describe and identify the Wikipedia content accessed by QR codes for projects such as Wikitowns; and (2) the need to use WMF resources most efficiently against a number of competing priority issues and initiatives within the movement and the Foundation. As always, we thank the volunteer community for its enthusiasm, its dedication and its continuing cooperation as it builds one of the most recognized global brands identified with free information and open licensing.

Geoff Brigham, General Counsel
Rubina Kwon, Counsel

Footnotes

[1] Please note that the Wikimedia Foundation does not own or endorse QRpedia or any other QR code system. We encourage QR code systems that incorporate Wikimedia content to comply with applicable privacy, intellectual property and other laws. Nominative use of the word “Wikipedia” should never imply endorsement, ownership or responsibility by the Wikimedia Foundation for the use of a particular QR code system or its software.

[2] Of course, any nominative use cannot violate provisions of the WMF trademark policy.

[3] We also have learned about the involvement of paid consultancies in the context of QR codes and Wikipedia. WMF is not resourced to distinguish between trademark demands from paid consultants as opposed to those from full volunteers on these projects. We do note however that anybody requesting movement resources (including trademark licenses) from WMF, Wikimedia chapters or other movement entities must immediately and actively disclose the nature and extent of his or her financial interest to the decision-maker at the time of any request for those resources. See, e.g., Guidelines on the Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest in Requesting Movement Resources; Recommendations 29, 30, and 47 of the Review of Governance of Wikimedia UK.

Wikipedia is an indispensable tool used to explore the threads of our collective cultural and intellectual fabric. It has also become a part of that fabric itself.

Producers and distributors of information and popular media are increasingly recognizing that Wikipedia is a normal (yet extraordinary) part of people’s daily lives. This realization has led to the integration of Wikipedia into movies and television shows; into textbooks teaching kids how to actively participate in their own education; and into the framework of technologies that allow people to access the world’s collective knowledge more freely than ever before.

It is important to spread the word about Wikipedia and the free knowledge movement, but it is equally important to accurately depict Wikipedia, the movement and the community of contributors who write and maintain it. To protect the Wikimedia trademarks is to protect the reputation, goodwill, and hard work of our global community. Ensuring against misuse is a responsibility that the Wikimedia Foundation takes very seriously through the careful management, enforcement, and licensing of the Wikimedia trademarks.

Promotion for Wikipedia Zero partnership between Orange and WMF

The Wikimedia Foundation receives approximately 200 trademark license requests per year, from members of the Wikimedia community, authors, movie production companies and telecommunications companies, to name a few (in the last 12 months we had 220 requests, of which we approved 52). A cross-departmental trademark team at the WMF reviews requests and determines which ones illustrate or further the Wikimedia movement. The team considers a number of factors in deciding whether or not to grant a license, such as whether the use is for profit or not; whether the use accurately depicts how Wikipedia would be used and reflects actual Wikipedia customs; whether the use depicts the nature of the projects and how to use them accurately; and whether the use is generally in the spirit of our movement.

Trademark requests cover a wide range of interesting uses of the Wikimedia marks. They demonstrate how Wikimedia projects touch the daily lives of people around the world and exemplify the tremendous impact of the work done by our community. Here are just some of the uses that were approved in the past year: an episode of the Australian TV show “Who Do You Think You Are?” featured actor Vince Colosimo, who was depicted searching for information about his grandfather on Wikipedia; the Taghreedat Initiative, which used the marks in an online survey in conjunction with seminars in the Middle East to teach people how to contribute to the Arabic Wikipedia; the character Conrad Knox, who used Wikipedia to research Hiroshima in the HBO series “Strike Back;” and the use of our marks in Wikipedia Zero mobile partnerships the Foundation has launched to provide access to Wikipedia without data fees in developing countries.

Seeing Wikimedia projects in the textbooks you read, the movies you watch, the mobile apps that you use, and in your local community not only acknowledges and advances the mission, but it gives people a peek into the Wikimedia world. It can teach them how to find the etymology of a word on Wiktionary; it can show them how they can contribute to Wikipedia; it can explain the values and importance of the movement; or it can even help them discover a whole community of people who are even more into 19th century heraldry than they are.

Why does the Foundation need to grant licenses if Wikipedia content is free?

An example of alleged trademark misuse by a third party website

Whether we like it or not, trademarks are ingrained into our lives. How long does it take you to identify the organizations that have the following symbols: (i) golden arches; (ii) a “swoosh” check mark; (iii) a puzzle globe? These symbols invoke and represent the organizations behind them and, for better or worse, the quality of the products and services those organizations provide. Wikimedia trademarks represent even more than that: they embody the hard work and dedication of a global community of contributors and editors–every corrected comma, every citation, every new tidbit of shared knowledge.

Requiring third parties to enter into licensing agreements to use Wikimedia trademarks allows the Foundation to protect that work. Just as the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License places restrictions on the reuse of Wikipedia content to ensure that the content is used in accordance with the free-license terms, our trademark licenses ensure that third parties use the Wikimedia trademarks only in ways that are consistent with the Wikimedia movement.

Strong licenses also increase the strength of trademarks, so in the event that the Foundation needs to enforce the trademarks against an infringer (like a mirror site with ads or a phishing site masquerading as a Wikipedia survey), we will be more likely to prevail.

Wikimedia trademarks are symbols of the work done by the Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia Foundation is proud to promote their use in support of our mission and will continue to protect them against misuse.

For more information on how to use our trademarks, please read our Trademark Policy. If you have questions about the Trademark Policy or would like to request a license to use any of the Wikimedia trademarks, please email trademarkswikimedia.org.

Michelle Paulson, Legal Counsel