Lindows wins a round, maybe

Chuck Talk writes “You have to give Michael Robertson credit. No matter how much other people try to portray his David versus Goliath battle, he actually is waging a fight that can be both entertaining and have merit. Today there was a rather fun and interesting bit of news in the Microsoft vs. Lindows battle.

In the United States District Court in Seattle, Lindows has declared that they have won a key ruling in their case with the Redmond monopoly. However, a cursory reading of the papers does not appear to be quite so clear cut. In fact, my take is that Microsoft was granted an immediate appeal based upon the fact that there is a substantial disagreement over the legal ruling that would affect whether the term windows can be considered a generic word or not, and whether Microsoft’s trademark can be considered valid.

That motion for appeal was granted, but solely for the express purpose of expediting the case. It is far from over. Although I would like to agree that the term windows is far too generic a word as to be removed from the English language by the wealth of a few billionaires, I cannot help but feel that there are those who will do anything to suck up to them. I can only hope that the better legal minds who serve our country are far less driven by personal politics and more driven by the desire to serve their nation. If ever this nation needed fair minded jurists capable of interpreting the laws according to the letter and not their personal bent, this is that time.

I know that Michael is a businessman. I know that he has begun a successful marketing campaign and made the efforts to try to take on Redmond directly. I know that he has also been doing a lot of things that his competitors have not tried. He is a man who can bring out both fans and foes, though he certainly doesn’t have a hope in hell of matching the wealth and power of the Redmond giant in court. His only hope is to win on the legal grounds of the case.”