Dutch Judge prohibits use of name Lindows

Finally a judge sees sense in the lowlands, now the rest of the world - Ed

Thanks Bink, for this article translated from Dutch. The use of the name Lindows is not allowed in The Netherlands. Dutch distributors of Lindows may not continue reselling Lindows. Microsoft had previously claimed Lindows OS and Lindows.com are confusing to the consumer.

"Lindows benefits unjustifiably on the success of Windows, because Lindows.com markets its product both as Windows and Linux." according to the judge.

The 4 dutch distributors have to stop reselling and advertising Lindows within 8 days. Also Lindows.com must be inaccessible for people browsing the Internet from The Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg). This verdict is similar to recent ones in Finland and Sweden where judges also prohibited the use of the name LindowsOS and Lindows.com.

Lindows.com could change its name for the Benelux countries, but according to Erik Vollebregt, the attorney of Lindows.com this is not likely to happen cause the sales of Lindows.com in the Benelux are not that high.

"We just forwarded the verdict to the US. So we have to see if Lindows.com wants to spend money going to a higher court", according to Vollebrecht.

News source: Webwereld Dutch technology news website