running Linux at work with Windows apps

[bscott at ntisys.com]

On Mon, 11 Nov 2002, at 12:46pm, eprice at ptc.com wrote:
>> Like everyone, I used to use the term "Windows", but it's not clear
>> anymore whether the big company owns "Windows" as a trade name, nor
>> whether they will be allowed to continue using it.
> 
> I must be way out of the loop... I didn't know about any question of the
> user of "Windows".

  Short version: Microsoft claims to have a trademark on the word "Windows"  
[1].  Microsoft sued the maker of "Lindows" as being too similar to
"Windows".  Microsoft backed off when the judge said that the
trademarkability of such a generic word as "Windows" is questionable.  They
did not want to press the issue, and risk losing their trademark entirely.

Footnotes
---------
[1] But not the word "NT" -- that is a trademark of Northern Telecom[2].  
    Microsoft never bothered checking to see if "NT" was already 
    trademarked when they named their brand-new OS "Windows NT 3.0".  That 
    fact contributed to "Windows NT 5.0" being renamed "Windows 2000".
[2] Now DBA[3] as Nortel.
[3] Doing Business As

-- 
Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
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