Hi, Can the WMF still enforce the trademark during the cool-off period?
Thanks, Strainu 2013/9/26 John Vandenberg <jay...@gmail.com>: > Hi, > > Further to our announcement on September 21, the opposition has been > formally filed before the European Union’s Office of Harmonization for > the Internal Market (OHIM) on September 25. You can read the > opposition filing in the documents section of the EU trademark > application[1]. > > Additionally, an opposition observation has been filed but it is not > yet available to the public at the URL mentioned above; our limited > understanding is that it will be published there in the coming days. > We’ll keep everyone informed on this aspect. > > So what is next? > > The OHIM will now review the Notice of Opposition to determine that > the opposition is admissible. This takes a few weeks. If the notice > of opposition is found to be admissible, the 'cooling-off period' > commences.[2] > > The 'cooling-off period' allows the parties can either negotiate an > agreement, and either party may withdraw their claim to the mark > without incurring additional costs. This period lasts between two > months and two years. It is important that everyone understands that > there is no need to act hastily. If the WMF and community need time to > find the right solution, we will have two years. > > The WMF set the timetable by applying for this trademark, and they > have not withdrawn that application or responded appropriately to > community calls for this to be re-evaluated. The WMF was informed in > March that we viewed the trademark registration as unacceptable. Even > after our announcement on September 21, the WMF has not addressed the > heart of the issue; they have chosen to focus the community attention > on a new approach, a collective trademark, rather than consider the > erosion of the Commons by their trademarking of a public domain logo > against the intentions of the author of the logo. > > Contrary to the WMF’s claims on their ‘Request for consultation’[3], > we have never said that the opposition needed to be filed on September > 23. We are aware that we could have delayed the opposition until > December. As the opposition process is able to proceed through the > non-adversarial phase for two years, we believe it is appropriate that > a properly focused formal process should commence now. > > During the first two months of the cooling-off period, we request that > the WMF provides a brief to the community explaining why they believe > they have a legal claim to the community logo, given that the board > knew it was selected in order that the community did not need to > request authorisation.[4] > > We also encourage the WMF to publish their research on collective > trademarks, so that the community can make an informed decision about > the utility of this approach. It is our understanding that, in the EU > at least, the WMF will need to abandon their current trademark > registration if they are to apply for a collective trademark. > > Regards, > John Vandenberg > > == References == > * [1] > http://oami.europa.eu/CTMOnline/RequestManager/en_Detail_NoReg?deno=&idappli=1152038&transition=ResultsDetailed > * [2] http://oami.europa.eu/ows/rw/pages/CTM/regProcess/opposition.en.do > * [3] > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Logo/Request_for_consultation#Notes > * [4] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2008-September/045702.html > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>