On 2011-11-22, at 10:31 AM, Joann Ransom wrote:
As I am sure most of you are aware, 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, but it 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.
Regards,
Jo.
-- Joann Ransom RLIANZA Head of Libraries, Horowhenua Library Trust.
hi Jo, sad news indeed, expect a cheque in the mail from me i reckon you should consider posting your email to these other NZ tech/library mailing-lists, too NZOSS http://lists.nzoss.org.nz/mailman/listinfo/openchat NZ-LIBS http://lists.vuw.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/nz-libs and haaay look - a mailing-list for -=LAW=- librarians in NZ :) http://lists.vuw.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/law-lib also, a handy list of library related mailing-lists in NZ http://wiki.lianza.org.nz/index.php/Resources/NZLibEmailDiscussionLists i realize that it's a bit of extra effort for you to sign-up to the lists, etc - but considering how much *wasted* effort this fight is going to cost everyone... its probably well worth it Mason