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Shame the previous thread on this was closed. A lot of my work entails getting stuff right and being able to justify it but like many on this previous thread How do you spell wifi / Wi-Fi / WiFi? point out it's kind of a)arbitrary decisions (e.g. a sub at PC World) or b)a slippage/usage-frequency thing which defines spelling of this and that.

While the word cat is pretty fixed, we're on a spectrum of usage with a lot of tech terms. In my view Wi-Fi is not a trademark and even by now people talk about doing the hoovering when Hoover is a trademarked product. So "Where are we at with Wi-FI, WiFi, wi-fi, wifi?" is my question to folk here.

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Marian Cleary
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    go with WikiPedia is my suggestion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi – mplungjan May 15 '15 at 12:24
  • It is a trademark: http://www.wi-fi.org/ – Chenmunka May 15 '15 at 12:26
  • I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is about a trademark – Chenmunka May 15 '15 at 12:27
  • This question is easily answered with commonly available references. The spelling is Wi-Fi. – Lumberjack May 15 '15 at 13:44
  • From the wiki article cited above: The term Wi-Fi, commercially used at least as early as August 1999,[15] was coined by a brand-consulting firm called Interbrand Corporation. The Wi-Fi Alliance had hired Interbrand to determine a name that was "a little catchier than 'IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence'".[16][17][18] Phil Belanger, a founding member of the Wi-Fi Alliance who presided over the selection of the name "Wi-Fi", also stated that Interbrand invented Wi-Fi as a play on words with Hi-Fi, and also created the Wi-Fi logo. – Lumberjack May 15 '15 at 13:45
  • @FumbleFingers I've tried reopening that original question back in 2013. Times have changed, and what was acceptable nearly four years ago may not be the case today. And obviously, it's not a "localized question", and it's no longer seen by the general public as a trademark. – Mari-Lou A May 15 '15 at 14:57
  • If we follow Lumberjack's claim, now there is only one way to spell Wi-Fi whereas in the 2011 question, the OP spelled it twice as wifi , the general consensus was that you can spell it whichever way you liked. But is that still true? – Mari-Lou A May 15 '15 at 15:05
  • Wi-Fi (or WiFi) – 4-K May 15 '15 at 15:07
  • @Mari-Lou: As I'm sure you know, there is no actual "authority" dictating how we should use or write any given expression (and I for one would dismiss out of hand the idea that we should care what some trade association wants). I take it for granted that in the fullness of time usage will settle on *wi-fi* the same as with *hi-fi* – FumbleFingers May 15 '15 at 17:27

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  1. Wi-Fi
  2. WiFi

Both can be used. I would avoid the lower case forms.

Sankarane
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