 |
 |
Hi all, The thing that irks me the most really is that PTFS are trying to take the name Koha and apply it to their own product. LibLime Koha is not Koha. The rest of the community use Koha. It seems so wrong to me that a company can take an established name and apply it to their own product. This means that the original product the name was applied to can no longer use its own name, Koha. This deliberate attempt to confuse the market can only be for commercial gain. Koha is Koha and LibLime Koha is not. Regards Jo. On 7 December 2011 04:56, MJ Ray <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Nate Vack <[log in to unmask]> [...] > > Not allowing trademarks and patents for FOSS is complex if they're > > allowed for software at all -- should someone reading a patent and > > providing a free implementation invalidate that patent? That's the > > exact opposite intent of patents. (Note: I think software patents > > should not exist at all.) > > Mathematics is not patentable, at least here and at least so far, so > yes, if the full implementation in software alone is obvious, it > clearly isn't a valid patent. > > > If FOSS projects are immune to trademark suits, should I be able to > > start a competing open-source catalog and call it Koha or Evergreen? > > That seems like an undesirable outcome. > > As I understand it, if you did, even without a trademark, you would > still probably be committing a range of civil offences, including > "passing off" and various advertising or trade descriptions offences, > in English law at least. > > The main thing a registered trademark brings to that party is > criminalisation (and so the ability of government agents to prosecute > autonomously, at the taxpayers' expense and regardless of the wishes > of project contributors) and I feel that's neither necessary nor > desirable. > > Hasn't this happened already, though, with Liblime starting some > competing Kohas and using trademark registrations to back up their > failure to rename their forks? (Although most of us call them LAK, > LEK and LK, to try to reduce the confusion.) > > Which brings me to a question which probably people here can help to > answer: are there similar civil offences of passing-off, misleading > advertising and trade misdescriptions in the US? > > Thanks, > -- > 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 > -- Joann Ransom RLIANZA Head of Libraries, Horowhenua Library Trust.