Lindows Sues to Block Microsoft Foreign Injunctions

Lindows.com Inc. has persuaded a federal district court judge to grant an expedited hearing on its motion for an injunction to thwart Microsoft’s international legal campaign against the Lindows name.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge John Coughenour scheduled the hearing for March 24 at U.S. Western District Court in Seattle. The hearing will consider whether to grant Lindows.com’s request for an “antisuit injunction and declaration of nonenforceability of a foreign interim order” that Microsoft has obtained in Europe against the San Diego-based company.

Lindows.com has done well in blocking Microsoft’s attempts to make it change its name in the United States. But in Europe, Microsoft has been successful in getting the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg (the Benelux countries) courts to stop Lindows from using its name. Microsoft has also managed to challenge Lindows.com’s business in similar cases in Finland, France and Sweden.

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