[ILUG] MandrakeSoft and Lindoes names disallowed

[Brian Foster]

 two articles found on
 http://www.extremetechsupport.com/index.phtml?action=news&catid=3
 (“Extreme Tech Support - Tech News and Info‟)
 the other day....

         MandrakeSoft ordered to drop trademark
         21-Feb-2004

A French court has ruled against Linux distributor
MandrakeSoft in an intellectual-property dispute with United
States-based Hearst Holdings and King Features Syndicate.
The decision could force the Paris-based software company to
surrender its trademark and domain names and to pay nearly
$90,000 (€70,000) in damages to the U.S. companies,
holders of the rights to the comic strip character Mandrake
the Magician. The comic strip marks its 70th anniversary
this year.  [ ... ]


         Lindows becomes 'Lin---s' in Europe
         18-Feb-2004
         A court order bars the full name.

Following court orders barring the Lindows name, Linux
vendor Lindows.com Inc. has changed its name in several
European countries to Lin---s, pronounced Lindash.

By changing its name, Lindows.com can continue to offer its
desktop Linux product to citizens of those countries where
Microsoft Corp. won injunctions banning the Lindows name,
Lindows.com said in a statement Tuesday.

A new www.lin---s.com Web site has been created especially
for people in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and
Sweden, Lindows.com said.  [ ... ]

After several legal setbacks in Europe, Lindows.com last
week claimed a victory in its U.S. battle with Microsoft. A
district court in Washington said that if the case came
to trial, it would instruct the jury to consider whether
"windows" was a generic term before Microsoft introduced
software with that name in 1985.  [ ... ]

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