The dispute dates back to December 2001 when Microsoft filed a trade mark suit in the US seeking to prevent Lindows.com from using the terms LindowsOS and Lindows.com, arguing that they infringe on its rights in Windows.
The case is due to come to trial in the US in March, but courts in Finland, Sweden and the Benelux countries last month granted temporary injunctions against the company, prohibiting it from distributing Lindows software.
Lindows.com's founder and CEO is Michael Robertson, an individual familiar with intellectual property litigation. Robertson founded MP3.com in 1998, which became a popular target for copyright lawsuits until media attention was diverted by the launch of Napster.
Yesterday he announced that the company would re-launch its software programme under the name 'Lin---s', pronounced Lin-dash.
"Dutch citizens deserve the same choices that are currently available to the citizens of more than one hundred countries around the world," said Robertson. "Lin-dash ensures that the Netherlands will have affordable, virus-free options instead of just expensive Microsoft software."
Lindows.com recently won a victory in the US case, when last week a US District Court ruled that the meaning of the term 'windows' should not be considered in its current day usage, but in the usage common at the time before Microsoft's Windows products were released onto the market.
The court's ruling means that if the trial jury finds that 'windows' was a generic term at the time of the Windows release, then it cannot be the basis for a trade mark.