Microsoft-Lindows battle delayed

The court case between Microsoft and desktop Linux-maker Lindows.com, over Microsoft’s ownership of the word ‘windows’, has been delayed for at least
another three months.

The jury trial, which was supposed to get under way earlier this year, was delayed by the judge to give Lindows.com more time sift through documents
relating to the 1992 case between Apple and Microsoft. In that case, Microsoft successfully argued that it had not infringed on Apple’s copyright
because the Mac OS’s windowed GUI had been used by other companies. Lindows is similarly arguing that the word ‘windows’ was widely used before
Microsoft appeared on the scene, so it cannot be ‘owned’.

This time, the U.S. District Court in Seattle has rescheduled the trial for 1 March, 2004, because of a “scheduling conflict”.