Erik Hetzner <[log in to unmask]>
> 1. http://www.softwarefreedom.org/podcast/2011/aug/16/Episode-0x16-Legal-Basics-for-Developers/
> Basically, the standard advice for patents is what Mike Taylor gave:
> ignore them. Pay attention to copyright and trademark issues (as the
> Koha problem shows), but patents really don’t need to be on your
> radar.

Will people please stop suggesting that PTFS's attempts to register
Koha trademarks in various jurisdictions are somehow because of
inattention on the part of the Koha users and developers?

Any project can always suffer from some ratbag try to register its
name as a trademark, regardless of it being a historic treasure (in
NZ, so I'm told) or in use in commerce by others before them.  That
doesn't make the ill-gotten registration valid: it should just make it
a nuisance for a short while until the rightful users gain or overturn
the ratbags' registrations.

Hell, someone tried to register "Linux" as a trademark once, didn't
they?

The alternative is to pay the protection rackets (also known as
trademark registrars) before it's a problem, rather than spend that
money creating projects that are worth defending.  Spend today, or
gamble and maybe spend tomorrow?  It's a choice.

Hope that informs,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
http://koha-community.org supporter, web and LMS developer, statistician.
In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Available for hire for Koha work http://www.software.coop/products/koha