| More legal challenges for Lindows.com |
Feb. 20, 2004
Microsoft has launched another legal challenge to Lindows.com by seeking to halt the sale of LindowsOS in Canada. A filing in Ottawa last week by the Redmond software maker aims to prohibit the company from using the marks "Lindows", "Lindows.com", and "LindowsOS" while selling their version of desktop Linux. Lindows.com claims the Canadian market represents more than 20% of the company's business, dating back to 2002.
The initial lawsuit against Lindows.com, filed by Microsoft in the United States, is expected to begin on March 1, 2004 in Seattle. In that case, Microsoft alleges the Lindows.com names infringes on their trademark on the Windows operating system. The judge hearing the US case has sided with Lindows.com by denying Microsoft's request for an injunction against the company and has declared that the jury must consider use of the term "windows around the the time the trademark was granted."
Microsoft has filed similar legal actions in several European countries, including France, Sweden, and Finland. The Redmond giant has been successful obtaining injunctions against Lindows.com as an Amsterdam judge recently ruled they cannot sell products under the "Lindows" name in the Netherlands.
To get around these legal challenges, Lindows.com has resorted to changing their name through their recently announced "Lin---s" program (pronounced LinDash). Launched in response to the Dutch order, the program offers residents of the Netherlands "the same choices that are currently available to the citizens of more than one hundred countries around the world. LinDash ensures that the Netherlands will have affordable, virus-free options instead of just expensive Microsoft software," according to Lindows.com CEO Michael Robertson on the program website.
This is not the first time Lindows.com has resorted to launching a diversion program to sell their products. Just last month a San Francisco court ordered Lindows.com to stop using its "MsfreePC.com" scheme. The MSFreePC.com website, operated by Lindows.com, launched in October 2003 and allowed 'eligible consumers' to file a Microsoft anti-trust settlement claim online and without receipts and use the credit to purchase Lindows.com products, as well as Sun's StarOffice for "free."
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