Use of "Lindows" name blocked in Sweden [LWN.net]

Use of "Lindows" name blocked in Sweden

Posted Dec 11, 2003 17:02 UTC (Thu) by ballombe (subscriber, #9523)
In reply to: Use of "Lindows" name blocked in Sweden by neoprene
Parent article: Use of "Lindows" name blocked in Sweden

For Swedish people that can't read english, windows is not a dictionnary
word, it is only the name of a software sold by a compagny called
microsoft. That ruling make plenty senses.

I find the name Lindows absolutly ugly and an offense to the free software
community to name a Debian-based distro after a proprietary product.

What made free software community successful is writing good softwares,
not whining about the microsoft monopoly.

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Use of "Lindows" name blocked in Sweden

Posted Dec 11, 2003 19:23 UTC (Thu) by Ross (subscriber, #4065) [Link]

It's a technical term which describes a GUI element used in MS
Windows and other operating systems. Is calling X11 "The X Window
System" also not allowed? How about referring to things on the
screen as windows? What about wxWindows? It's really a mess if
they don't recognize the term to be generic as it is.

Having said that I don't particularly care for Lindows or their
tendency to "elevate" their importance to Linux community in public
statements.

Use of "Lindows" name blocked in Sweden

Posted Dec 12, 2003 9:22 UTC (Fri) by filipjoelsson (subscriber, #2622) [Link]

> It's a technical term which describes a GUI element used in MS
> Windows and other operating systems.

In english, yes. In swedish, we say "fönster" (which happens to be the translations of "window").

> Is calling X11 "The X Window System" also not allowed?

Good question. I doubt that they (tm)ed it in Sweden before MS (tm)ed MS Windows.

> How about referring to things on the screen as windows?

As I said before, we don't - unless speaking to a foreigner who don't know swedish.

> What about wxWindows?

Have they applied for a trademark here?

> It's really a mess if they don't recognize the term to be generic as it
> is.

The mess is the concept of trademarking a generic word, I agree. But what constitutes a generic word? Could I trademark a swedish, french or latin generic word in the US? Sure. Should I have to prove that my (tm)-to-be is not a generic word in _any_ language when I apply? That's silly. So, should we do away with the concept of (tm) alltogether? That's no good either. (How would I know that I really get the quality product I'm looking for in that case?) Do you have a solution?

Use of "Lindows" name blocked in Sweden

Posted Dec 12, 2003 18:17 UTC (Fri) by Ross (subscriber, #4065) [Link]

Err... X predates MS Windows. I agree they probably didn't file a
trademark but doesn't Sweden recognize trademarks without registration
like the US?

I'm not arguing to get rid of trademarks. I'm also not saying that a
foreign word is automatically a generic term. In the US we give different
trademarks different levels of protection. I'm saying that the protection
for an unadorned foreign word which literally describes the product does
not deserve the level of protection which the Swedish courts seem to give
it.

Use of "Lindows" name blocked in Sweden

Posted Dec 11, 2003 19:40 UTC (Thu) by krash (subscriber, #2689) [Link]

Just to be clear, Microsoft did not invent Windows on the desktop. As usual they were behind several people in that respect. So what gives them the right to a trademark on Windows any more than Lindows has the right to a trademark their company name. Give me a break. Microsoft has already demonstrated that they would/will have a monopoly if allowed to and what you are saying is that this is OK. What are you going to do when they sue to not allow you to use X?

Use of "Lindows" name blocked in Sweden

Posted Dec 12, 2003 13:38 UTC (Fri) by Wol (guest, #4433) [Link]

Except that Sweden is a Scandinavian country, and as I understand it, "window" is derived from the scandinavian ...

From Latin we have "fenestra", giving us the French "fenetre" and German "Fenster". So English most certainly did not get it from those two - from where it got maybe 95% of its words ...

My understanding is it came from the Norse "wind eye", so I would have thought Scandinavian for "window" was something pretty close to "window".

Cheers,
Wol

Swedish word for "window"

Posted Dec 24, 2003 22:16 UTC (Wed) by goeran (subscriber, #151) [Link]

The Norwegian word is "vindu" with the etymology you describe. In Sweden, though, we use "fönster", obviously coming from the Latin word. So while the two Scandinavian languages Swedish and Norwegian are very similar, "window" is an example of a word which is quite different.

I don't know what Danes use.