Microsoft is taking its trademark infringement case
against Linux company Lindows.com to Canada.
The company filed suit against Lindows.com in a Canadian court
earlier this week. As in the other countries, Microsoft is asking
the court to bar the company from using the Lindows name, arguing
that it is too close to Windows and might confuse customers.
Microsoft sued Lindows.com in the US in December 2001. Since
then it has lost two requests for an injunction barring Lindows.com
from using the Lindows name.
Earlier this month, Lindows.com claimed a victory when a US
district court ruled that, were the case to come before a jury, it
would instruct the jury to consider whether "windows" was a generic
term before Microsoft introduced software with that name in 1985.
Microsoft is appealing that ruling.
Microsoft has had more success in Europe, where it won
injunctions in Sweden and the Benelux region. Lindows.com this week
announced it would do business in those countries under the
Lind---s name.
Lindows.com chief executive officer Michael Robertson has
described Microsoft as a bully, using lawsuits "as a battering ram
to smash Linux", adding yesterday that Lindows is the only viable
desktop Linux offering and poses a significant threat to
Microsoft's rule on desktop computers.
Microsoft, however, has insisted that its grudge with
Lindows.com is only about the company's name. "There are many Linux
operating systems on the market using names that are distinctly
their own and don't infringe on our trademark and we have no issue
with those companies," said Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake.
Robertson believed his company may have lost the cases in Europe
because the term "windows" has no generic meaning in languages
other than English.
Microsoft has also claimed it won an injunction against
Lindows.com in Finland. However, according to Lindows there is no
legal barrier preventing Finnish citizens from buying from the
company under its Lindows name.
Meanwhile, Lindows.com has added support for Intel's Centrino
product for notebooks to its software. Centrino-based portable
computers running LindowsOS Laptop Edition should be out within two
months.
Joris Evers writes for IDG News Service