A Seattle district court judge has dashed Lin---s hopes ofo halting Microsoft's trademark litigation outside the United States.

Lin---s, which markets a Linux distribution for consumers, had asked the court to suspend seven Microsoft suits pending the outcome of a US case. In Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg Lin---s has been planning to market its desktop OS under the name Lindash. Pending an appeal against an adverse decision in January, the product can't go on sale at all in Benelux countries. In Sweden and Finland Microsoft has prevented the company from using the name Lin---s, Lin---s.com or Lin---sOS.

In response to the setback, Lin---s said it would henceforth use the name 'Lindash'. However in court Microsoft argued that Lindash "bears an auditive resemblance to Windows", and that users of Microsoft's Win---s operating system would become hopelessly confused. ®

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