8 ms·

Also, why would a “non-profit” need to trademark it?

Anduia 3y ago
Many do so in order to maintain their integrity and reputation. For example, the name Wikipedia and the Wikipedia logo are registered trademarks. In the case of fundrising and sponsorship, it assures to sponsors the legitimity of that campaign, because there is no conflict with other organisation or company using the same name. I could go on, but I hope you get the point.
numbsafari 3y ago
Non-profits seek trademarks for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with profit.
- dumbfounder 3y ago
  And, non-profits doesn't mean they don't do things that they profit from, it just means they aren't trying to achieve profits for their owners. Endowments are non-profits, but they most certainly are making investments to achieve profits for the purpose of pushing that money into charitable vehicles.
  - numbsafari 3y ago
    A non-profit may also want to prevent others from profiting from their work by using their trademarks without approval for private gain. Having a trademark just means you are protecting a name, not that you are seeking to extract value, per se.
fnordpiglet 3y ago
Non profit is a business structure not a designation meaning “no business acumen.” Many non profits are actually quite profitable and active businesses, but they have no beneficial owners, pay no dividends, etc, and often have some mission that’s in some way broadly beneficial. This exempts them from certain taxation and other benefits. But it absolutely doesn’t mean everything they do is done altruistically without material consideration and definitely doesn’t mean with no legal claims or recourse for protecting their works or identities.
- dizhn 3y ago
  Plus they still get to pay huge salaries.
  - jameshart 3y ago
    Maybe because they need expensive skills
    - smallmancontrov 3y ago
      I'm sure the highly paid charity execs would say so. Trouble is, the charity space often suffers from a broken market feedback mechanism, where the people paying for the product are not the people consuming the product, and this can lead to a business structure that looks like a pure-play marketing machine hooked up to exec pockets with occasional leakage into a small amount of actual charity work. "But the situation occurs in regular business too! Monopolies, oligopolies, etc happen when the market feedback mechanism breaks!" Yeah, and we should go after those too. It's really astonishing the lengths to which people go to defend bad behavior.
      - fnordpiglet 3y ago
        Non profit doesn’t necessarily mean charity. For instance, the life line company (“help me I’ve fallen and can’t get up”) is (or was) organized as a non profit. They sold devices and services at a decent margin. Their excess revenues went back to employees in wages and perks. Executives and founders especially enjoyed extravagant life styles.
        dizhn 3y ago
        I was going to say both Visa and Mastercard are non profit but apparently this changed in 2006. I guess it makes sense like a "Got Milk?", or "the other white meat" for banks.
  - rvnx 3y ago
    Like the charity Wikimedia, that needs 6-figures salaries to coordinate volunteers filling webpages. Nobody with skills would be happy to be the one that represents Wikimedia for less than 780'000 USD right ?
Ensorceled 3y ago
So other people can't pretend to be them or their products and do things like raise funds. Which is also the point of "for profit" trademarks
ArnoVW 3y ago
For the same reason Wikipedia needs a trademark, or any successful open source project. To prevent grifters from hitching a ride off your word and muddying the water / confusing users of your service or product
HWR_14 3y ago
To prevent for profit companies from using it. The Olympic Rings and the Red Cross's Red Cross logo are both trademarked.

Many do so in order to maintain their integrity and reputation. For example, the name Wikipedia and the Wikipedia logo are registered trademarks. In the case of fundrising and sponsorship, it assures to sponsors the legitimity of that campaign, because there is no conflict with other organisation or company using the same name. I could go on, but I hope you get the point.

numbsafari 3y ago

Non-profits seek trademarks for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with profit.

dumbfounder 3y ago
And, non-profits doesn't mean they don't do things that they profit from, it just means they aren't trying to achieve profits for their owners. Endowments are non-profits, but they most certainly are making investments to achieve profits for the purpose of pushing that money into charitable vehicles.
- numbsafari 3y ago
  A non-profit may also want to prevent others from profiting from their work by using their trademarks without approval for private gain. Having a trademark just means you are protecting a name, not that you are seeking to extract value, per se.

fnordpiglet 3y ago

Non profit is a business structure not a designation meaning “no business acumen.” Many non profits are actually quite profitable and active businesses, but they have no beneficial owners, pay no dividends, etc, and often have some mission that’s in some way broadly beneficial. This exempts them from certain taxation and other benefits. But it absolutely doesn’t mean everything they do is done altruistically without material consideration and definitely doesn’t mean with no legal claims or recourse for protecting their works or identities.

dizhn 3y ago
Plus they still get to pay huge salaries.
- jameshart 3y ago
  Maybe because they need expensive skills
  - smallmancontrov 3y ago
    I'm sure the highly paid charity execs would say so. Trouble is, the charity space often suffers from a broken market feedback mechanism, where the people paying for the product are not the people consuming the product, and this can lead to a business structure that looks like a pure-play marketing machine hooked up to exec pockets with occasional leakage into a small amount of actual charity work. "But the situation occurs in regular business too! Monopolies, oligopolies, etc happen when the market feedback mechanism breaks!" Yeah, and we should go after those too. It's really astonishing the lengths to which people go to defend bad behavior.
    - fnordpiglet 3y ago
      Non profit doesn’t necessarily mean charity. For instance, the life line company (“help me I’ve fallen and can’t get up”) is (or was) organized as a non profit. They sold devices and services at a decent margin. Their excess revenues went back to employees in wages and perks. Executives and founders especially enjoyed extravagant life styles.
      - dizhn 3y ago
        I was going to say both Visa and Mastercard are non profit but apparently this changed in 2006. I guess it makes sense like a "Got Milk?", or "the other white meat" for banks.
- rvnx 3y ago
  Like the charity Wikimedia, that needs 6-figures salaries to coordinate volunteers filling webpages. Nobody with skills would be happy to be the one that represents Wikimedia for less than 780'000 USD right ?

Ensorceled 3y ago

So other people can't pretend to be them or their products and do things like raise funds. Which is also the point of "for profit" trademarks

ArnoVW 3y ago

For the same reason Wikipedia needs a trademark, or any successful open source project. To prevent grifters from hitching a ride off your word and muddying the water / confusing users of your service or product

HWR_14 3y ago

To prevent for profit companies from using it. The Olympic Rings and the Red Cross's Red Cross logo are both trademarked.