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NZ Developers Win 'Koha' Trademark Case

Posted by timothy on from the good-on-them dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Horowhenua Libraries Trust has successfully challenged a 2011 decision to let American company Liblime PTFS trademark in New Zealand the word Koha, the name of its library management system. That application was approved by the then Ministry of Economic Development, a decision appealed by the Horowhenua Library Trust and software firm Catalyst IT. A judgment delivered by assistant commissioner of trademarks Jennie Walden found the two pieces of software were largely the same and that it was likely a 'substantial number' of people would be confused or deceived if Liblime used the Koha trademark." Here's a previous Slashdot article discussing the PTFS/Liblime's trademark application.

17 of 26 comments (clear)

  1. Another riveting Slashdot story for Monday morning by korbulon · · Score: 3, Funny

    Something tells me this is gonna be a long, long day.

  2. Koha by kegel+dragon · · Score: 5, Informative

    Koha is the Maori word for a gift or offering. Usually reciprocal in nature.

    1. Re:Koha by madmarcel · · Score: 2

      Koha...is not quite a gift. It's many things.
      Sometimes it's a voluntary donation, sometimes it is not and you'd better pay the koha.
      Sometimes it is used as a blatant bribe to grease the wheels. (but koha sounds so much nicer than bribe doesn't it ;)

      Traditionally it's food, but not these days. Cold hard cash thankyouverymuch.

      (True story - koha in action ;)
      There's a band that travels the North Island here and plays in the various small town pubs.
      With each given pub they have a choice; voluntary door charge (koha) or, the pub pays them a flat fee up front.
      This band always goes for the flat fee, with the exception of one pub not far from where I live.
      When they play at that small town pub once a year, they always ask for koha at the door.

      I asked the band members what was so special about that pub?
      The answer:
      "It takes us six months to smoke the koha"

    2. Re:Koha by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That's the definition. In my experience, it's a way of demanding payment unofficially, as in "Nah, bro, that won't cost you, but some koha would be appropriate", and it's not reciprocal.

    3. Re:Koha by Eythian · · Score: 1

      If cost could come into it, there there is some reciprocity involved. I (accurately or otherwise) think of it more as a kind of token trade. You're staying on someone's couch, you buy the beer. Someone gives you a lift a long way, you give them some petrol money. That kind of thing.

  3. Re:Another riveting Slashdot story for Monday morn by korbulon · · Score: 1

    At this rate I might have to do some work!

    Yes! (I mean NOOO!)

  4. Re:Another riveting Slashdot story for Monday morn by lxs · · Score: 1

    Slashdot tip to brighten your day:

    1. Get up.
    2. Greet the first person you see with a compliment and a big smile.
    3. If you're feeling adventurous give them a hug.
    4. Report your findings here.

    Good luck.

  5. Apparently it's decent software by Pav · · Score: 4, Informative

    I did some work for the local RSL (Returned Services League of Australia) - they house a small military library which at the time was maintained by a part time librarian on maternity leave. She needed my help with a migration because Koha apparently worked better on a linux platform. Said it was the best software she had used, and that it has an excellent rep in librarian circles. The only other library software I'd previously helped maintain was Dynix, and that used to get plenty of eyerolls from the libarians.

  6. Oh, and it's open source... by Pav · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...surprised that wasn't mentioned in the story.

  7. Re:Another riveting Slashdot story for Monday morn by asylumx · · Score: 1

    Slashdot tip to brighten your day:

    1. Get up.
    2. Greet the first person you see with a compliment and a big smile.
    3. If you're feeling adventurous give them a hug.
    4. Report your findings here.

    Good luck.

    If it were a slashdot tip it would include:
    5. ?????
    6. Profit!

  8. Good by comrade+smith · · Score: 4, Informative

    Koha was developed by the Trust from the start. The decision to let a third party trademark the name was absurd from the start. I'm glad that the trademark was (eventually) rejected, and that LibLime had to pay costs. LibLime did provide paid support and development for Koha, but that doesn't mean they had any claim to the trademark. Especially as there are other companies that also provide support. (PS this new beta system is shit. The comment box is too small, and that picture is irrelevant to the story. Also, where the fuck did my paragraphs go? Do I have to manually insert them?)

    1. Re:Good by Eythian · · Score: 1

      LibLime doesn't deploy or develop on Koha any more. They have their own product they call Koha which is a several year old fork of the mainline Koha that they sell. The real Koha has moved on a long, long way now.

  9. Does not matter by Elixon · · Score: 1

    It really does not metter if it is the common-language word. Look at SPINNING(tm). Then look at http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soubor:Spinning_the_Bikes_1894.jpg and you will stop wondering. BTW SPINNING(tm) applies also to NZ. :-(

    --
    Well, I've got to get back to work. When I stop rowing, the slave ship just goes in circles.
    1. Re:Does not matter by Eythian · · Score: 1

      That makes no difference. The claim wasn't over it being a common language word (which it is here), it's over it being deceptive in the trademark sense. i.e. that there is something in the same space with the same name that's well known.

      GP's question is perfectly relevant.

      Source: I was physically at the Koha trademark hearing.

  10. Re:OKAY NEW ZEALAND WHERE IS ZEALAND !! by alex67500 · · Score: 2

    As explained in this brief but very informative video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE_IUPInEuc

  11. Re:Another riveting Slashdot story for Monday morn by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

    No shit. Where's that thank you for being a friend guy when you need him?

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  12. Re:Cybrarian by Eythian · · Score: 1

    > It's not as robust as normal commercial library systems software

    There are two things wrong here :)

    a) it is a commercial library system. I get paid to work on it, to host it, to support it. So do many other people and companies. That's about as commercial as you can get.

    b) libraries tend to like it more than their previous proprietary system because it is more robust. It doesn't crash (unless you overload it, but it handles that better than many other systems), it doesn't lose branches for days at a time for no good reason, doing repeated Z39.50 queries against it doesn't cause it to die *cough*voyager*cough*. In addition, it looks nice and is nice to use. Have you seen the public catalogues on proprietary systems? They are almost always horrifically ugly, and do things like have sessions in the URL, so you can't send links to someone else, or use multiple tabs reliably.

    Koha is not "good enough because you're poor", although it fits that niche too. It's just good because it has more developers, more libraries involved with its development, and is not marketing-driven. Hell, it was totally web-based in 2000, most other ILS software isn't even now.

    > Liblime Fauxha.

    I'm stealing that. I hope you don't mind :)