Erik Hetzner <[log in to unmask]>
> MJ Ray wrote:
> > 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?
> >
> It was my intention only to suggest that trademark issues were
> something that one needs to pay attention to, not that the Koha
> community had not paid attention to trademark issues. Thanks for
> clarifying the issue: I was unclear.

OK, sorry, I'm probably a bit sensitive because of some of the crazier
press coverage that we've had, suggesting that users or developers
should have done various things - often contradictory - but like the
old saying goes: the price of freedom is eternal vigilence.

My personal opinion is that it wouldn't matter if friendly people had
already registered it as a NZ trademark for whatever class covers
software (and I understand someone has a similar trademark for it).
Aome ratbags could still come along, register it for another class
(books, perhaps), slip past the regulator by mistake and screw with
the community for a while.

Trademarks aren't quite as awful as patents, but they're not far off.
Neither are as narrow and straightforward as copyright can be and are
much more expensive to defend.  They're a bottomless pit for resources
and ideally private trademarks and patents should not be allowed for
FOSS.

Regards,
-- 
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