Meanwhile, back in the real world…

From Holland comes the news that Microsoft has asked Dutch dictionary maker Van Dale, the most influential dictionary publisher in the Dutch language, to remove the verb “msn’en” ["to be on MSN or a similar chat program"] from the next edition of their dictionary.

The news came during a court case during which Microsoft sought a preliminary injunction from the judge in The Hague against the msnlock domain name, used by Unicaresoft, which markets an anti-chat program by that name.

Like the company owner and inventer of msnlock, chief editor Ton van Boon at Van Dale argues that use of the term msn’en has become widespread and it’s meaning isn’t limited to using Microsoft’s chat program. They will probably add TM behind the name in the dictionary, but will not change the definition. TM, according to the editor, has no legal value [that is, in the Netherlands]. Earlier, Google requested similar action from Van Dale over the verb “googlen” (”using an internet search engine”) and the company duly added TM. Van Boon ads that companies do not expect to win these cases, but they fight them anyway to show that they are willing to fight for their registered trademarks.

Unicaresoft, meanwhile, presented a whole list of domain names, including pornographic sites, with MSN in them, against which Microsoft has not taken action. They suspect that the company is taking action now because the program msnlock limits the use of MSN. Microsoft denies that - a spokesperson said that they have nothing against the product, and that they try to go after every misuse of their trademarks.