Microsoft vs. Lindows
From Free net encyclopedia
Microsoft v. Lindows.com, Inc. is a court case brought by Microsoft against Lindows, Inc, claiming that the name "Lindows" was a violation of its trademark "Windows."
In addition to the United States, Microsoft has also sued Lindows in Sweden, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, and, most recently, Canada. Michael Robertson has called this situation "Sextuple Jeopardy", an extension of the term double jeopardy.
In response to these lawsuits, Lindows had launched ChoicePC.com [1], which allows people to purchase lifetime Lindows memberships that includes a free copy of LindowsOS, free LindowsOS upgrades for life, and a ChoicePC.com t-shirt, for $100 USD. All money from the memberships goes towards helping Lindows in its legal battle against Microsoft.
Lindows had also retaliated against Microsoft's lawsuits with using Lin---s [2] (pronounced Lindash). Consumers and resellers from countries in which Microsoft has blocked the sale of Lindows products due to the trademark lawsuits are encouraged to visit the Lin---s website instead of Lindows.com to purchase the Lin---s software, which is identical to Lindows except for the name change.
In February 2004, a judge rejected two of Microsoft's central claims. The judge denied Microsoft's request for a preliminary injunction and raised "serious questions" about Microsoft's trademark. Microsoft feared that a court may find the "Windows" a generic and result in the loss of its status as a trademark. They immediately offered to settle with Lindows. In April, as part of an estimated $24 million cash and licensing settlement from Microsoft (for a case that Microsoft itself brought), Lindows agreed to change their name to Linspire, and transfer the Lindows trademark to Microsoft.
Many analysts concluded that Microsoft appeared to have been unwise in choosing generic names for many of its products, such as Office for a productivity office suite, Pocket PC for software for a PC that fits in people's pockets, and Project for project scheduling software.