Richard Percival

Davos

International Consultant

By suing the little guys Microsoft has given superb publicity to Lindows - Lindash is an excellent idea, which should also keep them in business. The joke is that Windows is not a legal protectable trademark - it actually still has to be prefixed with MS - so the whole business of "protecting" the word itself on its own is part of a much bigger game, (adjusting the English language to suit Microsoft, perhaps - as night follows day). This brings to mind a namechange forced on David Digital Computer, many years ago. They called themselves DDC, and were sued by BBC (no, not the ones you think, but rather Brown Boveri Corporation!) Brown, Boveri won, closed DDC down, and promptly were acquired in their turn by ASEA, to become ABB. The moral of the story? When companies get too big they hire too many lawyers, and lose the plot.