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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.

7 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"

  3. 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.

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

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

  5. 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?)

  6. 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