Microsoft -v- Lindows
p2pnet.net News:- Not so long ago Lindows was something of an oddity as much because of the identity of its founder and ceo, as anything else.
Mike Robertson put it together and he’d made his bones, so to speak, on MP3.com, once a site where musicians could showcase their music. After many trials and tribulations, it was bought by Vivendi and finally by CNET, which tells visitors who land on MP3.com looking for music, “you will see that we currently don’t have any to offer”.
In the meanwhile, Robertson had started up Lindows, a Linux-based desktop operating system in a windows environment.
With a name such as Lindows and an astute marketeer such as Robertson behind the steering wheel, it was bound to catch Microsoft’s eye. And it did.
Microsoft has just has filed against Lindows.com in Canada asking a court to bar the company from using Lindows, arguing it is too close to ‘Windows’ and “might confuse customers,” says a PC World story here.
Last September Robertson revved Microsoft up with MSfreePC, a service offered by Lindows ostensibly to help Microsoft customers process claims from a $1.1 billion settlement Microsoft had agreed to pay.
“In connection with a legal settlement, you may be eligible for a FREE PC and allowed to purchase up to $100 worth of software paid for by Microsoft,” it said, the $100 worth of software being, of course, Lindows.
The Lindows name was splashed repeatedly by on- and offline media around the world – advertising money couldn’t buy and in the meanwhile, Microsoft has continued to advertise Lindows through various court cases meant to stop Robertson from using Lindows on the grounds that it infringes the famous Windows trademark.
“Microsoft sued Lindows.com in the U.S. in December 2001,” says PC World, going on:
“Since then it has lost two requests for an injunction barring Lindows.com from using the Lindows name. Earlier in February, Lindows.com claimed a victory when a U.S. district court ruled that, if the case went before a jury, it would instruct the jury to consider whether “windows” was a generic term before Microsoft introduced software with that name in 1985. Microsoft is appealing that ruling.
“Microsoft has had more success in Europe, where it won injunctions in Sweden and the Benelux region, which consists of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg.”
Microsoft says it won an injunction against Lindows.com in Finland but according to Lindows, “no legal barrier prevents Finnish citizens from buying from the company under its Lindows name”.
Be that as it may, nothing loathe, Robertson says he’ll keep on selling Lindows in Benelux, but as Lind—s.
Robertson has characterized Microsoft as a bully, using lawsuits “as a battering ram to smash Linux,” PC World says, continuing:
“Lindows is the only viable desktop Linux offering and poses a significant threat to Microsoft’s rule on desktop computers, Robertson said Thursday after learning of the suit. Microsoft, however, sticks to its statement that its grudge with Lindows.com is only about the company’s name.”
February 23rd, 2004 at 5:49 am
sunday sunday sunday, battle roy-al
May 20th, 2004 at 11:27 pm
I don’t like what Microsoft is doing in the courts to protect it’s monopoly position, but at the same time I have to admire them.
They have been giving the courts the run around for years, and even if they lose a case they appeal and appeal until the penalty is so small it is meaningless. Their legal bill is probably larger than the penalty.
By clever management and growth, they are now so large that even the judgement in Europe hardly scratches the surface.
However, now they have now done something which, to my knowledge, has never been done before. They have made the courts of America irrelevent.
By filing abroad they have bypassed the American Legal system and made it second to Microsofts will. Even if the courts decide that Microsoft was wrong to go abroad, and decide that the foreign rullings are unenforceable in the US, it is too late, the damage has been done. They have forced another company to submit to their will against the will of the Courts of America.
I suspect that before this case is settled they will force Linspire to shut down completely and the case will be dropped. Why else would they continue to target Linspire? To drive it to the wall, of course. No final ruling means there is nothing to stop them doing it again to any other company or individual who attracts their attention. They don’t want that final ruling.
Film makers have been portaying the future where large companies control or replace governments for years.
Welcome to the United States of Microsoft
Got a bit of a ring to it, don’t you think.
Get used to it people, it is now becoming reality.