p2pnet - rss feed: 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: 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.”
