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Lindows Allowed to Use Company Name in Holland

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the a-company-by-any-other-name dept.

Supp0rtLinux writes "It appears that Lindows/Linspire has finally made some headway against Microsoft in the Netherlands. According this article, the Judge ruled that Linspire's continued, but minimal use of 'Lindows' for legal and trademark purposes doesn't violate Microsoft's trademark. With the US court date on this issue coming up soon, one can only wonder if Microsoft will have effectively cut off its nose to spite its face. And following immediately on the heels of today's Netherlands news, the latest Michael's Minutes from Linspire pegs all the blame for virus problems on Microsoft and basically says that Linux (well, Lindows anyway) is the cure."

3 of 228 comments (clear)

  1. Windows a generic term? by houghi · · Score: 5, Interesting

    a jury [...] would be instructed to consider whether "windows" was a generic term before Microsoft introduced software with that name in 1985.

    I can understand that such a thing is a different matter in non-English speaking countries, like The Netherlands.
    How could they ever not say that it is a generic term in English speaking countries, like the USA?. I look in awe to the fact that such a thing has to be considerd.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    1. Re:Windows a generic term? by Sique · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Nobody says "windows" as a generic term for "operating system" unless they are terminally stupid.

      I remember once to dispute with a quite intelligent but somewhat computer illiterate woman about the weaknesses of Windows. She was contradicting me the whole time and not accepting the flaws I pointed out.

      Later I realized she was using a Mac, and for her the Mac desktop was "Windows" because it had many of them. Talk about generic terms...

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
  2. Waiting for the KILLER virus by georgep77 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The main problem with windows in-security is that there hasn't been a virus/worm attack bad enough to make people really look at alternatives. Lax building codes don't get addressed until a supermarket roof collapses and many people are injured/killed, the same is true for the computer world. If a worm was created that automatically nulled all sectors of a hard drive 4 hours after infection people would take notice and steps would be taken to either i) fix the problem ii) change the product that has the problem. I think MSFT is on pins and needles hoping that this never happens . It would be catastrophic if said worm ever did exist but that might be the only thing to get people to really take this seriously.

    Cheers,
    _GP_
    p.s. Why didn't they call in "Lin+dows - Linux + XWindows" ??