They actually started sending out these letters and emails before the trademark was even published for opposition.<\/p>\n Matt has just announced<\/a> that he has finally transferred the WordPress trademark to the WordPress Foundation which is to be applauded.<\/p>\n Automattic was indeed discussing this around a year ago, so it seems to have taken a while. To be honest, I have never understood why it was ever registered under Automattic anyway.<\/p>\n There is also a new (draft) policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Historically there have been two major complaints with the WordPress Trademark policy.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know the legal ramification as I am not a lawyer, but the WordPress project as a whole has never used the highly visible \u00ae symbol in everything they have done for the last four years.<\/p>\n No mention of trademark usage has ever appeared on the WordPress.org home page before today, though there has for a long time been a little note on the .org site buried in the documentation<\/a>.<\/p>\n To reduce confusion people using the WordPress trademark in any way were asked to include a statement about their use to avoid confusion.<\/p>\n Automattic does include mention within their WordPress.com terms of service<\/a>. However, I wouldn\u2019t class that as visible.<\/p>\n Intellectual Property. This Agreement does not transfer from Automattic to you any Automattic or third party intellectual property, and all right, title and interest in and to such property will remain (as between the parties) solely with Automattic. Automattic, WordPress, WordPress.com, the WordPress.com logo, and all other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with WordPress.com, or the Website are trademarks or registered trademarks of Automattic or Automattic\u2019s licensors. Other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with the Website may be the trademarks of other third parties. Your use of the Website grants you no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any Automattic or third-party trademarks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Typical usage by people using the Trademark (probably) with permission might be the WordPress Philippines site:<\/p>\n WordPress is a registered trademark of Automattic Inc. This website is not affiliated with or sponsored by Automattic or WordPress.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Thus up until now, if the Trademark was owned by Automattic, WordPress.org should have had a similar statement. Now the license is transferred to the foundation, Automattic should if all things are being done fairly and crossing all the \u201ct\u201ds, include such a statement on every one of their properties.<\/p>\n That is the way to enforce your brand\u2026 Which with all due respect to Matt, the WordPress project as a whole, the developers and the people at Automattic, there has been a real lack of consistency.<\/p>\n WordPress has always policed the trademark based upon domains<\/a>:<\/p>\n If you already have a domain with \u201cWordPress\u201d in it, redirecting it to the \u201cwp\u201d equivalent is fine, just as long as the main one users see and you promote doesn\u2019t contain \u201cWordPress.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWordPress\u201d in sub-domains is fine, like wordpress.example.com, we\u2019re just concerned about top-level domains.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Up until now, that has been the whole official policy and the only page that contained that policy.<\/p>\n So the WordPress Foundation has a new draft policy<\/a>:<\/p>\n Permission from the WordPress Foundation is required to use the WordPress name or logo as part of any project, product, service, domain or company name.<\/p>\n We will grant permission to use the WordPress name and logo for projects that meet the following criteria:<\/p>\n * The primary purpose of your project is to promote the spread and improvement of the WordPress software. […] So all of these use cases might be in violation now:<\/p>\n All of this creates a sub-brand \u2013 WP that WordPress doesn\u2019t currently own and in many ways dilutes the WordPress brand itself. I rarely use WordPress in searches \u2013 I am more likely to use just WP as it often gets better results.<\/p>\n You also need to look at the registered trademarks themselves. I have copied them at the end of this post for convenience as the USPTO site isn\u2019t easy to get a permalink for specific documents.<\/p>\n The WordPress trademarks are for software and downloadable software.<\/strong><\/p>\n While they haven\u2019t done so yet, I would expect them to police the trademark over all possible use scenarios eventually \u2013 they do for instance have trademark use blocked for Adwords, unless you have specific permission.<\/p>\n However they seem to be relaxing a little on that front<\/a> \u2013 lots more theme publishers using WordPress in their ads \u2013 maybe that is because of being 100% GPL.<\/p>\n![\"WordPress\"](\"https:\/\/andybeard.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/WordPress.jpg\")
1. \u00ae \u2013 Do As I Say, Not As I Do<\/h2>\n
2. WordPress Trademark Scope<\/h2>\n
\n* Your project is noncommercial in nature (it can make money to cover its costs or contribute to non-profit entities, but it cannot be run as a for-profit project or business).
\n* Your project neither promotes nor is associated with entities that currently fail to comply with the GPL license under which WordPress is distributed.<\/p>\n
\nAll other WordPress-related businesses or projects can use the WordPress name and logo to refer to and explain their services, but they cannot use them as part of a product, project, service, domain, or company name and they cannot use them in any way that suggests an affiliation with or endorsement by the WordPress Foundation or the WordPress open source project.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
Scope In Social Media<\/h3>\n