On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 6:31 AM, Gregory Varnum <gvar...@wikimedia.org> wrote: > Greetings, > > Thank you to everyone for your questions and thoughts regarding the Wikimedia > Foundation's Form 990. > > Regarding Lodewijk's first question about the legal services (totalling > US$1.7M) which were conducted by Jones Day (page 61 - Part VII): As our > global reach has grown over time, we felt it was important to strengthen the > trademark portfolio and solidify the protection of Wikimedia’s marks > globally. In December 2013, we began working with Jones Day on our global > trademark filings, registrations, and oppositions. During the 2014-2015 > fiscal year we filed 1,500+ new trademark applications for 35 different > trademarks in 100+ countries. A significant portion of the legal services > expenses in 2014-2015 went toward the mandatory government trademark > application filing fees. > > These new trademark applications contained expanded coverage and revised > descriptions to ensure better protection of Wikimedia's marks and projects, > including countries where readership was growing through targeted programs or > distribution (such as Wikipedia Zero and mobile readership). Going forward, > we anticipate (and are beginning to realize) a decrease in trademark expenses > year over year, now that we have this initial foundation is in place. This > investment immediately benefits Wikimedia and its communities by ensuring > that our trademark portfolio reflects the maturity and breadth of the > Wikimedia movement, and protects us against certain forms of infringement or > misuse.
Hi Gregory, Just to confirm, the stated US$1.7M stated on page p.61 includes filing and other fees paid by Jones Day to relevant government bodies around the world? If so, any chance you can separate it into such fees paid *through* Jones Day, vs the consultation fees of Jones Day. You say it was a 'significant portion', but that is very vague terminology, meaning very different things to different people; it would be nice to have a ball park figure. Also there was a USD ~5.2 M investment in Europe listed on p. 35 as not being program services. I didn't see any reference to it in the FAQ; apologies if I missed it (It would be lovely if the source document was posted on meta for easier navigation, etc.). Could we have a little more info about this line item? -- John Vandenberg _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
