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Lindows Ordered To Stop Using Lindows Name
TheSpoom writes "InfoWorld reports that Lindows, a distribution of Linux and other software designed to emulate Windows, has been ordered to drop their name after Microsoft won a preliminary injunction yesterday from judges in Finland and Sweden."
Now will Wine have to change its name because of the Win part of its name?
The Lindows name is stupid anyway.
'Nuff said.
It's only funny until someone gets hurt. Then, it's hilarious.
Lindows as a name gives the wrong impression about where linux wants to be anyway.
They should concentrate on marketing their product as a decent OS and not a cheap and inferior copy of windows.
tom-george.comBecause geeks rate higher t
Such a stupid decision. Windows is a universal computing term that they adopted, I'd have more sympthy if Xerox Park sued. And there is no reasonable cause to assume that a consumer could mistake Windows for Lindows. It's a pretty clear case I'm very suprised that a judge supported this pile of steaming horse crap.
They need to focus on invalidating the trademark word "Windows" first, then Lindows wouldn't be infringing on anything. Microsoft should never have been able to trademark such a ubiquitous term.
BN
This ruling is quite correct. I am no Microsoft fan but the Lindows name was clearly intended to play off the Windows name. It is my theory that Lindows purposefully chose this name to get the publicity it is getting now. Other attacks at Microsoft (such as the Lindows offer for Californian residents based on the anti-trust settlement) play into this.
The fact that Microsoft has a hard time winning this in the US may be due to the fact that in this english-speaking country, "windows" is a common word meaning "openable thing made out of glass". In Finland and Sweden, this is not the case. Maybe this explains this injunction?
blah
You're looking at it the wrong way round. Which could Microsoft lose more from, being deprived of licences in Europe or deprived of licences in the US?
Current population of the US = 270m-ish. Current population of Europe = 730m. And Europe has a relatively low rate of piracy.
Factor in that the EU has shown (in the Windows Media Player case) that it's quite prepared to crack down hard on MS - in contrast to the US government - and it's no surprise that Microsoft is more concerned about European investments than American ones right now, and doing whatever it can to attack competitors' interests.
No, the sky isn't falling, but if you think that events in Europe can't affect those in America and it can't possibly affect you what Microsoft does over here, I suggest you talk to those people who narrowly avoided having their businesses crushed by a massive trade war over steel tariffs the other week.
Not to sound too nationalistic, but Europe is much bigger than the US - it's just more disorganised, and hamstrung by the French. ;-)
"This is why men never share their feelings; because women always remember." -Just Shoot Me.
Although in hate Microsoft like the rest of you, I do believe they have a point: Lindows is an obvious reference to the similar product Windows.
Take a for example a look at the products of Sanex, and the blatant clone Sanicur (same sounding name, same colour scheme).
I would guess that Sanex would be more than happy to sue the other company into oblivion, but they are apparently not able to do so.
karma police: arrest this man, he talks in maths; he buzzes like a fridge, he's like a detuned radio. [radiohead]
I don't agree with the decision but clearly you can see the difference between an Operating System and a car. It is a lot harder to tell the difference between one operating system and another especially when one is specifically designed to mimic the other. It is pretty obvious that Lindows intentionally named their product for just this sort of attention. It is not all that clever or catchy of a name by itself.
Lindows.com Chief Executive Officer Michael Robertson in a statement issued in response to the Swedish injunction, lashed out against Microsoft's legal pursuit of his company, accusing Microsoft of using lawsuits "as a battering ram to smash Linux."
Anyone who says that the name "Lindows" doesnt violate the trademark of "Windows" is a real hypocrite. If MS came out with a program called Winix, you guys would be going apeshit.
Even funnier is this Robertson idiot making this case out to be some kind of assult on Linux, rather than an attempt to get him to rename product.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
Every time something bad happens tech-wise in a court in the US, this place is crazy with comment of how the US sucks, how horrid the legal system is here, how its just stupid what companies can get away with in court, now a stupid ruling is handed down in a European court and everyone is mum... no one seems upset at the legal system, in fact most people here are defending the decision as a good one, even though when MS tried this stunt in the US system they failed. So much for the Europeans living up to their liberal ideals and standing up for the little guy....
Except, of course, that Microsoft is attempting to trademark a common word. Windows is not trademarkable, while Microsoft Windows is. Is this a new direction of embrace and extend?
Now, be honest. Do you make a xerox copy, or do you use a Xerox (tm) machine to make a photocopy?
I have never made a "xerox" before, and when people use that I word incorrectly I correct them.
However, "xerox", like "band-aid" was deemed to have become part of the American lexicon, used to refer to products of a genre rather than a brand. People using Mac OS X or Linux don't call their OS "Windows" like MS customers do. That's the defining test.
Windows is context of computer software is not a generic term. It has been made specific. Even if it is not a valid trademark for purposes of genericity, it is clear that Lindows was and is attempting to capitialize on the name similiarity.
Sorry. You're wrong (and not insightful). It is quite within their ability to trademark a common word. After all - Ford is a common word. So is Apple and Dell. Microsoft's actual trademark is for "Windows" and is serial number 74090419 for: "computer programs and manuals sold as a unit; namely, graphical operating environment programs for microcomputers."
They also own about 9 other active trademarks all on the word Windows relating to other areas.
I'm just plain against trademarks like this, nobody should be able to trademark a dictionary word, or any widely used short phrase (or at least the trademark should define very clear contexts of use). Whose language do they think it is anyway, you can't (or rather it seems they can...) claim bits of it. Very annoying.. If these corporate nazis were only prevented from hunting down and suing people for the most pathetic and derivative of reasons the world would be a better place.
I do see the distinction you, and the law make on this. But on the other hand, I also maintain that a person would have to be either very gullible, or very stupid to have any more likelihood of mistaking the two explorers and windows/lindows. I'm by no means an expert on watches, but if someone offered to sell me a Bolex watch I don't think I'd have much of a problem figuring out what was wrong with the situation.
Everything will be taken away from you.
I don't use "xerox" myself. I think that phase of usage has passed. Xerox isn't the main maker of copiers anymore, and copiers are ubiquitous enough we just call them "copiers".
The problem isn't that "Windows" is a generic term used to describe any graphical operating system. The problem is that "windows" is the name of the graphical thingies that comprise any graphical operating system, and has been for longer that Microsoft has been using the term to describe their own operating system which uses windows. It's more than just a generic name for something in computers, it is the name for the very thing which Windows and all other GUI OSs I'm aware of use.
Consider Kleenex -- I use "kleenex" as a generic term for "facial tissue". Now, what if instead of "Kleenex", Kimberly-Clark decided to call their product Facial Tissues(tm)? This is essentially what Microsoft did -- name the product after what it is. Which is fine, until you start telling other people they can't use that term or terms that evoke the same idea anymore.
Of course Lindows is supposed to conjure an association with Windows. It is undoubtedly meant to imply a product that is similar to Windows, which is indeed what Lindows wants to be. However it is highly unlikely that this would actually cause confusion. "What is a Fudge Cram pickup truck? Sounds a lot like 'Dodge Ram'... must be the same thing!"
Here's a somewhat related note on trademarks and common words. There was a box of some generic ginger snaps, and on the box in big letters it said "Made with Real Ginger!" With a tiny little (tm). "Real Ginger" was their trademarked name for whatever it was they put in their "ginger" snaps that was most certainly not ginger. Which is basically being able to shout blatant lies to people, as long as you say "just kidding" in a whispering voice that someone might hear. I can feel my cynicism congealing just thinking about it.
The enemies of Democracy are
that the only reason they [MS] are doing so now is because the Lindows.com "LindowsOS" is a competitor.
Well of course. MS isn't going to sue Pella over the use of "windows" in their product names. "Lindows" is marketed as a replacement for Windows (the product website is peppered with references to Windows), the UI looks like Windows (fairly generic to be sure, but some things came from MS, such as the "Start" button in the lower left hand corner), and certainly when the name "Lindows" was coined it wasn't with the generic "windows" usage in mind.
Lindows is clearly trafficking on the Windows product name and not the generic term - their whole business model is built on replacing Windows. I think the court ruled correctly in this instance.
Please consider that the native language in Finland isn't English. Windows is probably not a common noun there, and programmers, when speaking Finnish or Lapp or (what's that Swedish dialect) probably don't use the term. Now I'll grant that when they speak English they probably use the term windows to talk about a particular GUI interface...but it's not too surprising that this wouldn't carry a lot of weight in a court.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.