Microsoft’s most recent attempt to push the Lindows name out of the marketplace has been thrown out of a Netherlands court.
Microsoft had argued that despite the Lindows company changing its product name outside the United States to “Linspire,” the Microsoft trademark was still violated by the fact that the company’s name remains, globally, Lindows.
Microsoft Speaks Out
Earlier this week, Microsoft spokesperson Stacy Drake told TechNewsWorld that the software giant has maintained since the beginning of the case that Lindows needs to change its name because it is “clearly intended to invoke our product name.”
Drake went on to say, “This is an important trademark principle and one that we’ll defend vigorously in court.”
The Netherlands court disagreed and tossed out the case, stating that limited use of the Lindows name is not a violation of the Windows trademark owned by Microsoft.
“Not every use of the business name Lindows infringes on the Windows trademark,” according to the Amsterdam District Court ruling by Judge Sj. A. Rullmann.
Generic ‘Windows’
Also this week, Lindows CEO Michael Robertson commented on a U.S. Court Ruling, which declared that the term “windows” cannot automatically be considered nongeneric.
“We’re looking forward to getting this trial back on the fast track and presenting our piles of evidence — videos, magazines, internal Microsoft documents — which clearly shows the generic use of ‘windows’ before Microsoft commandeered the word.”
Robertson continued, “This outright denial of Microsoft’s appeal confirms that the trial will focus on how consumers and the software industry used the term ‘windows’ in the 1980s, before Microsoft dominated the landscape.”
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