Microsoft Pays Off Lindows (Linspire)

Is this the dawn of a new age of cybersquatting?

[grelmar]

CNet News Article [news.com.com]

Microsoft settled with Lindows today, for 20 Million.

First Mike Rowe gets an XBox and some tuition, now Lindows (err... I guess Linspire now) gets $20 Million.

Is it just me, or is this an open invitation to do a bit of creative cyber squatting to get some cash and goodies out of MS?

[vkaryl]

Y'know, in many cases it's not the money or the potential for a precendent setting situation, it's simply that it's not worth a primary's time and energy to defend something that's of basically little value overall.

[grelmar]

But these are cases where MS initiated the lawsuits, and then up paying off the people they were suing

[vkaryl]

Doesn't matter. Any company in the world can get misled by attorneys. Even MS.

Eventually someone with clout looks at the chief honcho attorney and says, "Just exactly WHAT is this going to cost us in terms of actual money and actual time?" And when heesh gets the answer, heesh says, "Go fly a kite. We do NOT have time to mess with small fry crap like this. You wanna make a name, go talk to the mafia."

[This in no way indicates that I think that any member of this forum who is also an attorney would ever mislead anyone in this manner....]

[encyclo]

As seen with the Sun settlement and others, Microsoft are trying to clear the deck of many current legal tangles, seemingly whatever the merit of the action. The name Lindows was chosen specifically to attract a lawsuit - it was always a deliberate attempt at associating their product with Windows, and I'm surprised that Microsoft didn't fight longer.

I think that Linsomething are very lucky that MS caved in despite a clear advantage in the latter's favour - it's not many tech companies which get a $20 million cash injection from a direct competitor.

[bcolflesh]

So the $20 million saves them from bankrupcy for what, 1 or 2 years max?

[grelmar]

$20 mil and how much free press?

I'm with the "they did it just to tweak MS's nose" side, but they got a ton of free press and exposure, a 20 mil cash injection, and "street cred" for being willing to take on MS and winning.

That 20 milprolly brought in a pile more cash, what with the supposed "overhang" in tech venture capital funds. Not to mention they're supossed going public later this year.

I think it bought them more than 1 or 2 years. Unless they can burn through cash like the old school dot-com-ers.

In the big picture, MS has been caving a lot lately on these suits. I'm just wondering if they're maybe feeding the beast. Most of the cases so far have been legit or semi legit cases of people pushing the bounds, without trying to extort MS. Is the money tht MS is passing around gonna inspire the real dotcom dirt to nake a push on "windows-like" domains and products, hoping for nothing more than a payout?

[digitalv]

I wonder where MS draws the line. Maybe I should start an online billing gateway called Billgates. Perhaps Microsoft would be willing to provide free startup capital, heh.

[isitreal]

The name Lindows was chosen specifically to attract a lawsuit - it was always a deliberate attempt at associating their product with Windows

If you read the case a bit more closely you'll see that there was a very real possibility that Microsoft would lose not only the case but the right to have windows itself be considered a unique name, since there was prior art or whatever it is called, that alone made this case far too risky to pursue, in a word, ms TOTALLY messed this one up, and probably won't be using that particular legal team again if they have any common sense at all.

[grelmar]

I wonder where MS draws the line. Maybe I should start an online billing gateway called Billgates. Perhaps Microsoft would be willing to provide free startup capital, heh.

Heh, I was thinking more of modding FireFox and releasing it on a site "infernalexplorer dot com"...

Giving all due credit to team moz, of course ;)