Lindows looks to Apple for Microsoft lawsuit inspiration

Lindows and Microsoft won't be meeting for trial until at least December. A judge has delayed the trial - originally scheduled for April - until 1 December to give software maker Lindows time to go over some documents from a 1992 case that pitted Apple Computer against Microsoft, Lindows said on Monday.

Microsoft sued Lindows for trademark infringement in December 2001, claiming the company's Web site was trying to illegally capitalise on its Window name.

The 1992 case centred on Apple's claim that Microsoft's use of windows and other elements infringed on Apple's Mac OS copyright. Microsoft successfully defended itself by arguing that those elements had been used by other companies besides Apple.

Lindows said it planned to use Microsoft's earlier material to bolster Lindows' own defence that Microsoft should not be able to control the use of the word "windows".