The Wikimedia Foundation publishes first Brand Stewardship Report

The Wikimedia brands represent the feelings of goodwill created by the collective contributions of millions of people over more than two decades. The projects are distinguished and connected as “brands” through their names, logos, color use, font and other design elements. As part of our guiding principles, the Wikimedia Foundation is responsible for safeguarding these valuable assets.

In this first ever Brand Stewardship report, the Wikimedia Foundation Legal and Brand Studio teams are excited to share details about the fun and complex processes involved in stewarding the Wikimedia brands. 

In the report, we discuss the work that goes into creating, developing, protecting, and utilizing the Wikimedia brands. Wikimedia’s brand assets are primarily created by community members, like the recent contest to find a sound logo. These assets have meaning and value thanks to the on-wiki and off-wiki contributions of every Wikimedian.

At the Foundation, we protect the brands’ value through trademark registrations and by preventing third parties from co-opting the brands to serve goals that aren’t aligned with Wikimedia’s mission and values. We also nurture brand equity by guiding and empowering community members to use the brands responsibly. We approach each of these steps with thought, care and creativity, to preserve the positive associations the world has with Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects.

We have crafted this report hoping that it will be of use to people within the Wikimedia Movement, as well as anyone fascinated with the details of managing a collection of globally-recognized brands to serve our strategic direction, principles, and mission. The report is meant to complement and add context, nuance, and examples to some of our other evergreen brand and trademark resources.

We hope that the report will inspire you to think about the many ways that you can continue to be an ambassador for Wikimedia, like contributing to a Wikimedia project, sharing something you learned on the projects with a friend, acting in accordance with our values, or by reporting a possible trademark infringement. 

We intend to update this report periodically with new metrics and to highlight developments or special projects around the Wikimedia brands. Translations of the report into the six additional languages supported by the Foundation website (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Russian and Spanish) are forthcoming.

We welcome questions or comments about the report at this talk page.