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March 16, 2004

Lindows asks judge to halt Microsoft’s trademark crusade

Lindows.com Inc has asked the judge handling its trademark dispute with Microsoft Corp to prevent Microsoft from filing similar complaints around the world after being forced to withdraw its products and services from some European countries.

By CBR Staff Writer

Microsoft believes that San Diego, California-based Lindows.com’s name infringes its Windows trademark and has been operating a long-running campaign to secure injunctions against the Linux distributor.

Microsoft twice failed to persuade a US Court to grant an injunction during 2002, and indeed suffered the ignominy of US District Judge John Coughenour casting doubt on whether the company should have been allowed to trademark the word windows at all.

Microsoft has been more successful in Europe however, where it has won a preliminary injunction preventing Lindows.com from operating in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. It has also filed complaints in Finland, Sweden, France and Canada.

Last week Microsoft asked the Dutch Court to fine Lindows.com 100,000 euros ($122,230) per day unless its blocks access to its web site from Benelux countries, something Lindows.com claims is impossible and would evade the US Court’s previous ruling.

This has prompted Lindows.com to ask the US court to intervene. On the eve of trial in the US, Microsoft has on one hand sought to delay, while on the other hand it has filed over a half dozen cases around the world seeking the same preliminary injunction that Judge Coughenour twice denied two years ago, said Lindows.com’s lead trial counsel, Daniel Harris. We’re asking the court to prevent Microsoft from pursuing these foreign cases until the US case is complete.

Lindows.com has asked the US court to direct Microsoft from bringing any more trademark lawsuits outside the US and to declare the Dutch injunction non-recognizable and unenforceable.

The US infringement case has now been delayed while Microsoft prepares to appeal the judge’s ruling that the jury should consider whether the word windows is generic, based on the period between 1983 and 1985 before Microsoft released its products.

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The judge also ruled that once a word is declared generic it would continue to be generic and that if the jury decides that windows is a generic term then Microsoft’s marketing machine cannot change that fact.

This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire

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