Lindows Windows: according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Microsoft's case against San Diego-based Lindows Inc

San Diego Business Journal, June 7, 2004 by Rene'e Beasley Jones

Lindows Windows: According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Microsoft's case against San Diego-based Lindows Inc. may have suffered a hit in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Lindows and Microsoft are duking it out over names. Lindows sounds too much like Microsoft's famous operating system Windows, the software giant claims.

The May 24 ruling dismissed Microsoft's request for an appeal before the case goes to trial in U.S. District Court.

On Feb. 10, a district court judge ruled the jury would be told to consider whether the Windows mark was generic during the period prior to Microsoft Windows 1.0 entering the marketplace in November 1985. Also, the judge would not instruct the jury to consider the current meaning if the jury finds "windows" was a generic term before November 1985. Microsoft wanted to appeal that ruling.

Lindows officials expect the trial to take place during the second half of this year in Seattle.

"We're looking forward to getting this trial back on the fast track," Michael Robertson, CEO of Lindows, said in a prepared statement.

"This outright denial of Microsoft's appeal confirms that the trial will focus on how consumers and the software industry used the term 'windows' in the 1980s, before Microsoft dominated the landscape," Robertson said.

Contact Rene'e Beasley Jones via fax at (858) 571-3628 or via e-mail at rbeasley@sdbj.com. Call her at (858) 277-6359, Ext. 3109.