Microsoft Starts Legal Fight Over Lindows Name 670
actappan writes: "Whether or not Lindows is real, this article on CNET News.com indicates that Microsoft intends to sue them into oblivion. Looks like supression remains the best way to promote innovation." cyberlawyer adds: "Some of you may remember that MS originally had great difficulty obtaining a trademark for the generic term 'Windows' but was eventually able to pay off those who had filed letters of protest to the granting of the mark including Sun, Oracle, and Borland. As a trademark lawyer I (unhappily) have to admit that Lindows probably has a weak case. Of course it's never too late to bring a cancellation action based on genericide ;-)" CodeWheeney contributes a link to coverage at Yahoo, too.
Re:Anyone remember X-Windows? (Score:2, Informative)
there is and has never been anything called X-Windows (AFAIK - anyway MIT's X window system is not called X-Windows).
there was X11
then XFree
Sometime along the lines they merged.. and im not sure of exactly what its called now.. i just know it is a mix of both systems.
Context of Tradenames and Trademarks (Score:2, Informative)
Having the exact same name is not always automatically a trademark infringement; it depends on the nature of your business, the uniqueness of the name, and whether your product could reasonably be confused with the product of the other guy.
I assume MS's lawers are going after the fact that Lindows is offering a product that is likely to be confused with an Operating System. If Lindows was a hamburger chain the suit wouldn't fly.
Examples:
Apple (Records of Beatles fame) and Apple (Computer); Royal this and Royal that; and as someone pointed out NT (Microsoft) and NT (Northern Telecom, which we know know as NorTel); you could probably add "XP" everything lately.
Apple Computer actually had an out-of-court settlement with Apple Records agreeing not to enter the "music" business. At the time Apple was a small company and a little gun-shy about being threatened with a lawsuit by the Beatles, of all people, so they came to an agreement instead. When the time came for multimedia on the desktop, they just went ahead; Apple Records declined to pursue it.
Re:M$ is wrong again, duh. (Score:5, Informative)
Second, this isn't about copyrights. It's about trademarks. And if someone pops up in your market with an extremely similar name and a product that aims to subsume the functionality of yours, it is not unreasonable to consider that an infringement of your trademark.
You're splitting some pretty fine hairs if you consider these products to be in different markets.. they're both operating systems for x86 computers, and the entire point of Lindows is to offer the same functionality (and then some) of Windows.
Sorry, but MS is in the right on this one.
Ya have to hand it Michael Robertson... (Score:2, Informative)
It appears MS has made a tactical error however, at least MP3.Com had money in the bank to pay the settlements. Lindows is just getting off of the ground. Another one to watch is windux.com [windux.com]
Sue them into oblivion? (Score:4, Informative)
this article on CNET News.com indicates that Microsoft intends to sue them into oblivion.
Umm, no...
Fucking slashdot editors... I'm through. I contribute to slashdot no more. This is my last post.
Re:Even if Windows is a TM; It is Generic (Score:1, Informative)
A deal between who? Microsoft and the people who erroneously refer to the X windowing system as X-Windows?
Re:Idiot! (Score:3, Informative)
Second, a trademark is a trademark. Whether it's a company name or a product name is irrelevant. Even if for some reason you think it should, in some alternate universe where logic is based primarily on coin flips, be relevant as a matter of degree, you might recognize that Windows is Microsoft's flagship product. Calling your OS "Lindows" is tantamount to naming your company Nicrosoft.
And incidentally, I don't think "Lindows.com" is going to stay in business for very long, and one could make a very sound argument that Microsoft has "earned its place".
See you in hell, dinner plate.
Re:Microsoft's Claim is Legit (IAAL) (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Nice moderation (Score:1, Informative)
Slashdot is the most sensical place on the Internet.
Not sure on which article you saw this, but here is how it could have happened:
- Article is modded up as Insightfule, Interesting, Funny or whatver, until it reaches score 5. The label would be the one of the last moderation (for example: Funny).
- Article is modded down as Troll by a Microsoft loozer without a sense of humor: (Score: 4, Troll)
- Another moderator thinks that the -1 for troll is unmerited, and mods it up as Underrated. However, the Underrated label is special, because it doesn't show up in the article's header. Score would be back to 5, but the label would still be Troll.
- Or, alternatively, maybe the moderator who had done the Troll moderation posts to the same article, and thus annulling the -1 score he attributed to the article (but not his label). This is also how Score: 6 moderations or Score: -2 came to be in the old Slashdcode.
Posting anonymously, because this comment is discussing moderation, and some moderators don't like that.Re:Innovation (Score:2, Informative)
Running windows in Linux is a very cool thing. It allows people to use linux on their desktop while connecting to the full blown exchange server. VMware simply provides an abstraction layer to the hardware. If it's not supported in the abstraction layer - it doesn't exsist.
Re:Microsoft's Claim is Legit (IAAL) (Score:3, Informative)
Claims "Dave Brennins" aka "gayrod" aka dave@davebrennins.org
whois -h magic davebrenninslaw.orgCrsnic.net hasn't heard of davebrenninslaw.org
Whois Server Version 1.3
No match for "DAVEBRENNINSLAW.ORG".
traceroute davebrenninslaw.org
Error - davebrenninslaw.org doesn't exist
Sure, YAAL, whatever. Neat piece of whoring though.