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Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Thu, Nov 13th 2003 9:47am





Lindows/Windows Trademark Suit Heads To Court

from the who's-got-the-stronger-claim? dept

Fortune's David Kirkpatrick is looking at the Microsoft suit against Lindows.com accusing them of trademark violation. He talks to Lindows CEO Michael Robertson, and buys into his arguments completely... until he speaks to a Microsoft representative. The arguments seem to be all over the place, but the one point that is most important is whether or not people will be confused by a product called Lindows, and think it was created by Microsoft. Microsoft claims to have a study saying that 18% of people would be confused. Is that enough to force a name change? Meanwhile, Kirkpatrick points out that the folks at Microsoft should probably be more worried about the actual desktop Linux offerings that are coming along, rather than what anyone calls their products.

3 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    New Name

    identicon
    Beck, Nov 13th, 2003 @ 11:36am

    Using UNIX naming parlance he should call it LINWin, as in "Lindows Is Not Windows".

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    trademark

    identicon
    aNonMooseCowherd, Nov 13th, 2003 @ 1:23pm

    Too bad the X consortium never tried suing Microsoft over the name "Windows". They could have claimed that people would think that Microsoft Windows was a version of X, which people commonly (if incorrectly) have been calling "X Windows" for years.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    Pathetic

    identicon
    ::CORY::, Nov 13th, 2003 @ 7:57pm

    Oh this is just absolutely pathetic. Would Lindows still be Lindows if it was called something different ? Yes it would and since they were asked to change the name prior to even creating the Lindows OS, how could it have possibly or even remotely cause harm to their plan if they did change their name ?

    I think Robertson and Lindows should have to prove that their product NEEDS to be called Lindows, because obviously it is such a clear parallel to the word Windows it cannot be a coincidence or anything but trying to get a rub off the word Windows.

    Especially in a world where the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) can lose it's name because the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) thinks they are so similar they will cause confusion. One is some half-naked men hitting each other and the other is a company that protects animals. See how confusing that is ?

    By the by, please support me by drinking my brand new cabonated soft drink, Lepsi. Yes, be young, have fun, drink Lepsi.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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