With a March trial date set for Microsoft's US trade mark action against Lindows.com, a version of the Linux operating system designed to be compatible with Microsoft applications. Microsoft is now threatening to take the matter to court in Europe as well.
The dispute dates back to December 2001 when Microsoft filed a trade mark suit seeking to prevent Lindows.com from using the terms LindowsOS and Lindows.com, arguing that they infringe on its rights in Windows.
Lindows.com's founder and CEO is Michael Robertson, an individual familiar with intellectual property litigation. Robertson founded MP3.com in 1998, which became a popular target for copyright lawsuits until media attention was diverted by the launch of Napster.
According to an open e-mail from Robertson to Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, published on the Lindows.com web site, phone calls were made two weeks ago to some Dutch resellers of the Lindows system, threatening them with possible legal action if they continued to sell the system.
Although withdrawn, the threats were then followed up, according to Robertson, by "documents from attorneys working for Microsoft from both the Netherlands and Sweden, accusing us of infringing Microsoft's trade marks and threatening us with more lawsuits."
Letters were also sent to "many of our small business partners in those countries threatening to sue them if they continue to sell our products."
Said Robertson, "These actions have nothing to do with confusing trademarks, but rather, appear designed only to protect Microsoft's longstanding monopoly from a very small competitor."
He added:
"After years of briefing and discovery, a jury will finally hear and decide the issue less than three months from now. We have every intention of honouring the eventual outcome of that case. If we lose, we plan on changing our name, not just in the United States, but globally. Initiating identical legal proceedings in other countries when the issue will soon be resolved with a trial in the United States is nothing more than a dirty tactic meant to block the adoption of Linux and to harm Lindows.com."
According to CNET News.com, Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler confirmed, "We've taken steps in certain European territories to curtail infringing behaviour on the part of Lindows", and added, "The resolution of the US case doesn't necessarily bind any other country".