In a simple two-sentence decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit flatly turned down Microsoft's shot at a rare interlocutory appeal aimed at getting a court to declare that its own Windows trademark, acquired under some murky circumstances, is legitimate because the judge hearing Microsoft's trademark infringement suit against Lindows has sworn to throw the question of whether it is or not to the Lindows jury.

The appellate court's rejection leaves the precious Windows trademark in serious jeopardy. The court did not say why it rejected Microsoft's motion.

In defending itself against Microsoft's challenge to its obviously derivative name, Lindows has claimed that the word Windows is generic and always has been and that Microsoft's trademark is invalid.

Microsoft was granted a special dispensation to pursue the failed appeal before the Lindows trial even started.

Microsoft has had little luck with the Lindows suit in Judge John Coughenour's court, which is hearing the case, but European courts proved more sympathetic to Microsoft's arguments and Lindows, pre-trial, was forced to change the name it does business under and the name of its Linux operating system to Linspire.

The special Microsoft appeal postponed the US district court case, which was supposed to start on March 1, and Lindows complained that it was merely a delaying tactic that would also force Lindows to spend more of its limited resources on lawyers.

The failure of Microsoft's motion puts the trial on a schedule to be heard in the second half, a chortling Lindows said. It should run about two weeks and Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are supposed to testify.

• Lindows to Adopt Foreign Alias
• Microsoft Pretty Much Gets its Way with Lindows
• Lindows Wants to Go Public
• Linspire/Lindows Under Attack Again from MS Lawyers
• Microsoft Wants Lindows Totally Erased
• Triumphant Lindows Inc CEO Tells Microsoft: "Compete in the Marketplace, Not the Courtroom"