Lindows takes Microsoft to court to stop court cases

Following a string of lawsuits across Europe and the threat of a €100,000 a day fine from Microsoft, Lindows is taking Microsoft to court to stop what it calls Redmond's "legal assault".

After a deluge of cases in the US over alleged trademark infringement, which have repeatedly gone Lindows' way, the Linux reseller has requested an anti-suit injunction in a court in Washington; the filing accuses Microsoft of trying to overrule US legal jurisdiction by filing similar suits in other countries.

The court filing states: "Knowing that full compliance with [a legal decision in the Netherlands, whereby Lindows must block site access to Dutch users] is impossible without shutting down completely... to recognise and enforce the decision would be tantamount to a declaration that any court in the world may assert jurisdiction over all US-based information providers so long as they maintain an internet presence," and requests that the court bar Microsoft from taking Lindows to court until a final resolution is reached in the US.

Lindows also said it had put itself outside the jurisdiction of the Dutch courts by "severing all commercial ties" with the country.

Michael Robertson, Lindows' CEO, didn't mince his words, accusing the behemoth of deliberately holding up the US case for its own ends. "Microsoft is purposely delaying the US case from going to trial while they use their monopoly profits to fund a global legal assault on our small company to halt the adoption of Linux," he said in a statement.