NZ Developers Win 'Koha' Trademark Case

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.

Koha

[kegel dragon]

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

Apparently it's decent software

[Pav]

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.

Oh, and it's open source...

[Pav]

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

Good

[comrade smith]

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?)