As many of you know, the community held a contest to design and decide upon the new logo that would come to represent Wikivoyage, the latest open and collaborative project to be hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. After review of quite a few fantastic entries and much debate, the logo below was decided upon by community consensus.
Unfortunately, both the Foundation and several members of the community discovered that the eventually chosen logo bore a striking resemblance to the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) logo: File:Wto logo.svg
At that time, the Foundation reviewed the two logos and believed that, while some risk existed, there were significant enough differences between the designs and the markets the two organizations occupied for both logos to co-exist.
Since then, the Foundation has received a cease-and-desist letter from the WTO, requesting that we change the logo. While we wish that the WTO agreed with our assessment that the two logos contain substantial differences and could co-exist, we understand their concern.
We still believe that there are some significant differences between the Wikivoyage logo and the WTO, however, such arguments are not guaranteed to win if we were to legally oppose this request because there are also some substantial similarities. With this in mind, as well as the fact that the Wikivoyage logo is still relatively new and has not had a chance to build significant brand recognition yet, we believe the better solution is to hold a new community contest for a new logo.
We believe that the community is the best body to decide what logo should represent their hard work and hope that interested community members will take this opportunity to once again showcase their creativity and talent by submitting designs. The WTO has been very understanding of the Wikimedia movement’s values and need for community consensus and has agreed to grant us ample time to develop a new logo through community processes. (Please see the proposed Logo contest procedure.) That said, we hope to begin the process of community consultation and input in the next few days so that the new logo can be in place by the end of July. With that, we look forward to seeing new designs!
Michelle Paulson
Legal and Community Advocacy
Wikimedia Foundation
