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The logo of Wikipedia, an Internet-based multilingual encyclopedia, is an unfinished globe constructed from jigsaw pieces – some pieces are still missing at the top – inscribed with glyphs from many different writing systems. As displayed on the web pages of the English-language version of Wikipedia, there is a wordmark WikipediA under the globe, and below that the text "The Free Encyclopedia", in the free open-source Linux Libertine font.[1]
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Each piece bears a glyph (letter or character), symbolizing the multilingualism of Wikipedia. They include the letter Cyrillic letter И ("I"), the Greek letter Ω (Omega), the Chinese character 維 (Wéi), and at the bottom the Kannada kagunita ವಿ (Vi) and the Hebrew (and also Yiddish) letter ו (Vav). As for the Latin letter "W", these glyphs are mostly the first glyph of the name "Wikipedia" as rendered in various languages (for example, 維基大典 in Classical Chinese).
An initial design of the logo was created by Paul Stansifer, a 21 year old Wikipedia user, whose entry won a design competition run by the site in 2003. It was then improved by David Friedland, then a student and now a Microsoft developer. He changed the styling of the jigsaw pieces so that their boundaries seemed indented and simplified their contents to be a single glyph, rather than a word.[2] In the process, some errors were introduced, which can be traced to the incorrect handling by some web browsers of ligatures in certain writing systems.[2]
Wikipedia's globe logo has reflected some recent changes. Wikipedia has changed its new page look and altered the logo a bit, most notably adding a different Chinese character below the letter Ω. The name Wikipedia and its slogan also changed the font and its new look also reflected the "Try Beta" feature previously.
The (former) logo was registered as a European Community Trade Mark by Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. The trade mark bears a filing date of 31 January 2008 and a registration date of 20 January 2009[3].
The UK Intellectual Property Office uses a similar logo, featuring a spherical jigsaw device with a piece missing, for its online trade mark search facility.[4]
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