Glass Panes: Microsoft's word-monopoly on "Windows" challenged

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Jim Warren <jwarren () well com>
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2002 12:42:03 -0800
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: fwd: Glass Panes: Microsoft's word-monopoly on "Windows" challenged

> http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/30/technology/30LOGO.html
>
> December 30, 2002
>
> Glass Panes and Software: Windows Name Is Challenged
>
> By STEVE LOHR
>
>      here is no question that Microsoft Windows, the name of the
> dominant personal computer operating system, is one of the leading
> brands in the world. Today, Windows is the face of computing for nearly
> 400 million people worldwide ó the software that determines the look and
> basic operations of more than 90 percent of all PC's.
>
> But success, money and monopoly, it seems, do not put even so familiar a
> name as Microsoft Windows beyond challenge. An upstart company,
> Lindows.com, is trying to persuade the Federal District Court in
> Seattle to invalidate Microsoft's trademark on Windows.
>
> At issue is the level of legal protection that should, or should not, be
> accorded to an ordinary word that Microsoft adopted as its own: windows.
>
> The litigation so far ó a mounting pile of evidence and briefs ó
> provides a detailed narrative of the origins and rise of a
> mega-brand, and a primer on trademark law. And an order by Judge
> John C. Coughenour, refusing Microsoft's plea for a temporary
> injunction against Lindows.com, suggests that Microsoft has a fight
> on its hands against a feisty start-up with fewer than 50 employees.
>
> In January, Judge Coughenour is expected to decide on Lindows.com's
> motion for a summary judgment ó a ruling from the bench ó that the
> Windows trademark should be revoked. But that is a long shot. Both
> sides are preparing for a trial that is scheduled to begin in
> Seattle on April 7, when a jury is expected to begin weighing
> whether Lindows is an illegal copycat brand and whether Microsoft's
> trademark on Windows should be taken away.
>
> Lindows.com is defending a broad principle, its lawyer says. "No
> company, no matter how powerful, no matter how much money it has
> spent, should be able to gain a commercial monopoly on words in the
> English language," said the lawyer, Daniel Harris, a partner at
> Clifford Chance.
>
> [...]


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