Microsoft almost lost Windows trademark when they sued Lindows for infringing it. They settled out of court, and paid Lindows several million dollars, in exchange for them changing their product name to Linspire, and dropping their challenge of Microsoft's trademark.
So yes, Microsoft has a trademark on Windows. But only because they have deep enough pockets to keep anyone from getting it invalidated.
This case could honestly go either way. Generally to invalidate a trademark you need to show that a word was in common use before the trademark was filed, or that the word has been in common use for a long period of time with no affiliation to the trademarked product. "Netbook" came in common use after the Psion product was trademarked, and has only been a generic term for a year or so. So the judge could go either way and it would be a reasonable decision, IMO.
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I don't see why Psion should'nt win, if of course they have enough money to fight the legal battle.
This is about money really.
Doesn't Microsoft have trademark on the english word : Windows?
It's completely ridiculous in the first place that 2 common place words when compounded together can even be trademarked in the first place.
netbook is a new word, that's it, end of story.
Microsoft almost lost Windows trademark when they sued Lindows for infringing it. They settled out of court, and paid Lindows several million dollars, in exchange for them changing their product name to Linspire, and dropping their challenge of Microsoft's trademark.
So yes, Microsoft has a trademark on Windows. But only because they have deep enough pockets to keep anyone from getting it invalidated.
This case could honestly go either way. Generally to invalidate a trademark you need to show that a word was in common use before the trademark was filed, or that the word has been in common use for a long period of time with no affiliation to the trademarked product. "Netbook" came in common use after the Psion product was trademarked, and has only been a generic term for a year or so. So the judge could go either way and it would be a reasonable decision, IMO.