Well like you've said it's a "rumor" that the guy got sued.
I'm not sure about it. The person who made Freespire is a Linspire Insider and he posted about his project on the Linspire forums before it was posted on Slashdot and such sites.
I can however believe that Linspire kindly asked Jasp to rename his distro because the name looks to much like Linspire and it's confusing.

The reason for Lindows vs. Windows is diffrent since Windows is a generic word and it should NEVER have been Trademaked in the firstplace (that was the big reason they took the name Lindows), Linspire is to my knowledge not a generic name.

But I don't know much about the whole trademark stuff anyways.

It was never proven that windows is a generic term either. But you are discussing details. Overall the general principle IS the same.... confusing name....

Well, "windows" has been the plural of window, for hundreds of years and is a common word. If they called their product Microsoft Doors, or Microsoft Toilets, it would be the same thing IMO.

But Linspire didnt press it, they took door #2 the 20million And M$ doesnt have a product named windows after all... windows 98, windows 2000 windows XP, yes but not just windows

Still a lawsuit over name confusion.... just like freespire OUCH!

Then why did Microsoft sue other companies who used the word "Windows" in their names ?
for example a company that makes a product called "windows faxmachine" could be sued by Microsoft for using the Generic word "Windows" in their product name.

Understandable that they did it (I guess any small company can use $20 Mil.) but I would like to see them push it to the finish (hope they won) since I personaly feel the trademark to the word "Windows" should have never been given to Microsoft (also know that other computers also used the term "window" for the little windows on their O/S).

The full history has always been available for download as pdfs of all the legal documents - including the various European ones when Microsoft found they were not winning in the USA.

No, you won't find them on the linspire.com website (nor the lindows.com one, either).

Have a look at Microsoft's splash screen. See where the R in a circle is. Right after the word "Windows". That is placed there by the instructions of Microsoft's legal department. It isn't just by accident. It shows what they have been able to get away with in registration through a dumb (imho) clerk who didn't know the difference. As Cloudy wrote, it should have been challenged immediately - but they were friends with everybody back then.

Indeed they have attempted to suppress all forms of competition since; about 18 months ago they even took a guy name Mike Rowe to court over his registered business name and domain of MikeRoweSoft.

The facts on such things are always available for perusal, so that you can make your mind up in an intelligent fashion on issues like this, rather than listening to all the rumours.

I got Linspire 4.5 from linuxmedia.co.uk for £1 GB. Everything works right out of the box for my setup, it is useable although obviously a semi-commercial thing what with the cnr thingy.