In the News: Lindows Takes on Windows The New York Times has an interesting article on the dispute between Microsoft and Lindows.com over the WINDOWS trademark. For those of you who care, Lindows.com is attempting to convince a federal judge in Seattle that WINDOWS is not a legally protectable trademark under the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. 1065(4)), as it is merely the generic name for a user interface that displays programs in separate display boxes, or "windows." Apparently, the USPTO has taken the position that WINDOWS is merely descriptive, rather than generic, by requiring Microsoft to claim distinctiveness under Section 2(f) in its federal registrations for WINDOWS XP.

And while I'm discussing the USPTO, can I just state that I'm very disappointed that they've discontinued support for the page that linked directly to both TESS and TARR, enabling users to bookmark one page to pull up both. Now, the only way to create a shortcut to both search engines is to bookmark them individually, or bookmark the Trademarks Page, which is far too cluttered for my tastes.