Microsoft and Lindows Settle Trademark Case

An anonymous reader writes "According to an official press release hosted over at Yahoo, Microsoft and Lindows have settled their trademark case, and have announced: 'Over the next few months Lindows will cease using the term Lindows and transition to Linspire globally as our company name and primary identifier for our operating system product.' Although it's claimed: 'Terms of the settlement are confidential', ZDNet has an article filling in more details, including the fact: 'Microsoft will pay upstart Linux seller Lindows $20 million... [so that Lindows] will give up the Lindows name and assign related Web domains to Microsoft.'" We've previously covered the Microsoft and Lindows conflict in some detail.

Comments

Full Text of the Confidential Agreement - link

[darthcamaro]

The ZDNET/C|net buggers barely scratched the surface.. Here's a link to the full text of the so called, Confidential Settlement Agreement and Mutual Release of Claims, dated as of July 16, 2004, by and between Microsoft Corporation and Lindows, Inc as filed with the SEC.

Sort of like wxWidgets

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft forced wxWindows to change their name to wxWidgets. They didn't really have a strong case, but as an non-commercial project, the wxWidgets proejct didn't have the finances to contest it, either.

Microsoft offered some assistance in getting a hold of a new site for wxWidgets, as well as offsetting costs, but it was nothing along the lines of $20 Million.

So Microsoft has been going after other people in the "similar" namespace and using carrots and sticks to move them away from the Windows name. Generic or not, they are doing everything they can to ensure "Windows" is associated only with the Microsoft product.

Summary of "Confidential" agreement

[Ath]

• Linspire will change their name from Lindows to Linspire.
• Linspire will not longer use any form of "Lindows" or even a named with "indows" in it.
• Linspire will transfer all related domains to the Lindows name to Microsoft.
• Linspire will no longer bundle Microsoft's media DLLs in its distribution.
• Microsoft will license the SDK for their media components to Linspire.
• Linspire accepts Microsoft's claim that "Windows" is a Microsoft trademark. Is it? I doubt it as generic terms are not trademarkable. I think "Microsoft Windows" is trademarked.
• Microsoft will pay Linspire $20 million.
• The terms of settlement will be absolutely confidential and only made available where required by law...like on the SEC website during Linspire's IPO.

So I have a question. Can Linus Torvalds sue Linspire for using the "Lin" part in its name? Wait. Bad idea. Because then Linus would have to pay Linspire $20 million!

Re:What a cop out!

[clintp]

And on the third hand, they get their name mentioned over and over again in the industry press.

There's no such thing as bad publicity.

Re:This is one case where I was rooting for micros

[Vicegrip]

"selling free applications and having a name that sounds like 'windows'"

Ok, I'll bite. I don't use Lindows/Linspire but this post is incorrect.

1. Lindows sells a subscriptions service where they offer easy to install apps. This may not seem useful to you but it's very useful to a horde of people for whom installing software is too complex. They are selling "making it easy for you" not the free software.

2. Lindows doesn't represent the community and nobody would take seriously an attempt on their part to do so. They do however contribute to it. Recently, for example, they hired a fulltime mozilla developer. I'm also pretty sure they help finance/contribute to the development of some KDE apps. Additionally, they help pay for the bandwidth of the kdelook website.

3. Microsoft's rights to the word window are debatable at best. IMO owning the rights to the use of words in a specific context is a stupid idea that should never have been allowed.

4. I don't blame Lindows for taking the 20mil. It's not cheap fighting litigation all around the world and extra tough when you're trying to build a business at the same time. Especially when your opponent has bottomless pits of money.