Hi Mike,
So sorry it has taken so long to get back to you; we have had so many people writing offering support and ideas and its taking me a while to get through them all!
The name is a big deal for NZers. We never presumed to trademark Koha and I have had so many Maori confirm our instincts were right. However the sentiment seems to be if the only way to protect it is to trademark it then we are worthy guardians. This is high praise and means abandoning the name to PTFS without one hell of a fight is not going to happen... The media have leapt on this issue and it has been high profile news this week - and in election week to.
So now we work the process. We have a brilliant legal team - working pro bono - and have a war-chest big enough to cover all disbursements - even if PTFS don't follow through on its offer to transfer the trademark to a Koha non-profit. HLT has been selected by the Koha community to be the non-profit to represent the Koha global community so just cross fingers now that they do the right thing.
Thanks for your support,
Cheers Jo.
Sent from my ASUS Eee Pad
Mike Taylor <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Joann,
>
>This is horrible news, and you have my sympathy. It's very strange to
>think how recently we all thought of LibLime as being among the Good
>Guys.
>
>My position on this is that the name is probably not worth as much as
>it feels that it's worth. I can understand why as the originators you
>would have a strong emotional tie to it, but in the end a name-change
>may not hurt much at all (and might even help, judging by the
>frequency with which large organisations spend millions to change
>their names). Oracle owns the name OpenOffice, but no-one much cares
>and LibreOffice has replaced it in the world's affections.
>
>So your best bet may be to shrug and let them have the old name for
>their proprietary fork. Just come up with a new name for the open
>codebase, let the world know, and move on with doing more useful
>things -- spending what money you have on coders and cataloguers
>rather than lawyers.
>
>JMHO.
>
>-- Mike.
>
>
>
>On 22 November 2011 00:51, Joann Ransom <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> Horowhenua Library Trust is the birth place of Koha and the longest serving
>> member of the Koha community. Back in 1999 when we were working on Koha,
>> the idea that 12 years later we would be having to write an email like this
>> never crossed our minds. It is with tremendous sadness that we must write
>> this plea for help to you, the other members of the Koha community.
>>
>> The situation we find ourselves in, is that after over a year of battling
>> against it, PTFS/Liblime have managed to have their application for a
>> Trademark on Koha in New Zealand accepted. We now have 3 months to object,
>> but to do so involves lawyers and money. We are a small semi rural Library
>> in New Zealand and have no cash spare
>> in our operational budget to afford this, but we do feel it is something we
>> must fight.
>>
>> For the library that invented Koha to now have to have a legal battle to
>> prevent a US company trademarking the word in NZ seems bizarre, butit is at
>> this point that we find ourselves.
>>
>> So, we ask you, the users and developers of Koha, from the birth place of
>> Koha, please if you can help in anyway, let us know.
>>
>> Background reading:
>>
>> - Code4Lib article <http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/1638>: How hard
>> can it be : developing in Open Source [history of the development of Koha]
>> by Joann Ransom and Chris Cormack.
>> - Timeline <http://koha-community.org/about/history/> of Koha
>> :development
>> - Koha history visualization <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl1a2VN_pec>
>>
>>
>> Help us
>> If you would like to help us fund legal costs please use the paypal donate
>> button below.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Otherwise, any discussion, public support and ideas on how to proceed would
>> be gratefully received.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>>
>> Jo.
>>
>> --
>> Joann Ransom RLIANZA
>> Head of Libraries,
>> Horowhenua Library Trust.
>>
>>
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