Use of "Lindows" name blocked in Sweden
Use of "Lindows" name blocked in Sweden
Posted Dec 11, 2003 16:42 UTC (Thu) by neoprene (guest, #8520)Parent article: Use of "Lindows" name blocked in Sweden
Windows is a dictionary word.
Lindows(R) is _not_ a dictionary word and should be easily identified as such and an easy thing to trademark.
Microsoft(R) should only be allowed to use "Windows(R)" in combination with "Microsoft(R)".
Posted Dec 11, 2003 17:02 UTC (Thu)
by ballombe (subscriber, #9523)
[Link] (7 responses)
Posted Dec 11, 2003 18:13 UTC (Thu)
by neoprene (guest, #8520)
[Link]
Posted Dec 11, 2003 19:23 UTC (Thu)
by Ross (guest, #4065)
[Link] (2 responses)
Having said that I don't particularly care for Lindows or their
Posted Dec 12, 2003 9:22 UTC (Fri)
by filipjoelsson (guest, #2622)
[Link] (1 responses)
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 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?
Posted Dec 12, 2003 18:17 UTC (Fri)
by Ross (guest, #4065)
[Link]
I'm not arguing to get rid of trademarks. I'm also not saying that a
Posted Dec 11, 2003 19:40 UTC (Thu)
by krash (guest, #2689)
[Link]
Posted Dec 12, 2003 13:38 UTC (Fri)
by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
[Link] (1 responses)
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,
Posted Dec 24, 2003 22:16 UTC (Wed)
by goeran (subscriber, #151)
[Link]
I don't know what Danes use.
For Swedish people that can't read english, windows is not a dictionnary Use of "Lindows" name blocked in Sweden
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.
Non English speaking Swedes? All four of them?
Use of "Lindows" name blocked in Sweden
It's a technical term which describes a GUI element used in MSUse of "Lindows" name blocked in Sweden
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.
tendency to "elevate" their importance to Linux community in public
statements.
> It's a technical term which describes a GUI element used in MSUse of "Lindows" name blocked in Sweden
> Windows and other operating systems.
> is.
Err... X predates MS Windows. I agree they probably didn't file aUse of "Lindows" name blocked in Sweden
trademark but doesn't Sweden recognize trademarks without registration
like the US?
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.
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
Except that Sweden is a Scandinavian country, and as I understand it, "window" is derived from the scandinavian ...Use of "Lindows" name blocked in Sweden
Wol
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.Swedish word for "window"