Ministry allows koha grab
Thursday, 24th November, 2011
The Ministry of Economic Development has angered both Maori and open source software advocates by accepting the application by a United States company to trademark the word "koha" in relation to software.
PTFS LibLime sells services around library management software called Koha, which was developed 12 years ago by Horowhenua Library and made available for free under an open source license.
Lynell Huria, a lawyer at patent specialists AJ Park, says there is no blanket provision in the Trademarks Act to prevent people trade marking Maori words or images.
“Anybody can apply to register a Maori word or image as a trademark in New Zealand at the moment. The trademark will be referred to the Maori advisory committee but their scope for refusing that trademark is very narrow and a trademark must be considered offensive if it is to be refused,” she says.
Ms Huria says it could cost the Horowhenua Library Trust tens of thousands of dollars to fight the application.
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