Lindows Now Officially Linspire

Lindows is dead. Long live Linspire.

On Wednesday, Linspire Inc. announced the official completion of its global name change from Lindows to Linspire. Linspire will no longer use the term Lindows in any of its current marketing materials, Web site or retail packaging.

The company changed its name as part of a recent worldwide settlement with Microsoft Corp. in the trademark infringement cases between the two companies. The settlement agreement resolved all claims in the litigation, both in the United States and internationally. Terms of the settlement are confidential.

Linspire changed the name of its product and Web site in April under pressure from Microsoft after several European courts ruled that Lindows violated Microsofts Windows trademark.

On July 19, Microsoft, threatened by having its Windows trademark put into question by American court rulings, decided to settle all its Linspire cases. The companies announced that they had reached a $20 million settlement in their trademark fight, with Lindows agreeing to change its name globally to Linspire and Microsoft granting it rights to a limited, four-year license to unspecified Windows Media components, which Linspire will incorporate into its Linux-based operating system.

Microsoft agreed to pay $15 million by Aug. 15 and then make a second payment of $5 million by Feb. 1, 2005, in exchange for Linspire handing over a set of “Lindows” domain names to Microsoft.

Linspire has made a full transition over to the Linspire company and brand name. All visitors to Lindows.com are now automatically redirected to Linspire.com.

Linspire-branded retail products are also becoming available in the channel. Resellers are being encouraged to immediately begin using the new Linspire name and logos in all advertisements, promotions and packaging.

While Linspire has decided to back away from its IPO, the company is using its funds from the Microsoft settlement to continue to work on improving its product line.

For example, Linspire has recently added the ability to use AOL-based modem connections with its Linux-based operating system and added voice-over-IP capabilities to the Gaim instant messaging client to create PhoneGaim, a combination VOIP and IM client.

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