Then how did Microsoft sue itself? They sued Lindows.
It's part of the grand scheme. Duh! /s
Well, Lindows was a start-up company...but maybe, JUST maybe, Microsoft bought Lindows (the company) in secret and changed its name to Linspire and put out a phony press release which made it look like Microsoft paid them to change their name. :)
Actually, the suit wasn't successful, and ended up with Linspire getting a large sum of cash from MS...
"As early as 2002, a court rejected Microsoft's claims, stating that Microsoft had used the term "windows" to describe graphical user interfaces before the product, Windows, was ever released, and that the windowing technique had already been implemented by Xerox and Apple many years before[1]. Microsoft kept seeking retrial, but in February 2004, a judge rejected two of Microsoft's central claims[2]. The judge denied Microsoft's request for a preliminary injunction and raised "serious questions" about Microsoft's trademark. Microsoft feared that a court may find the "Windows" a generic and result in the loss of its status as a trademark. In July 2004, Microsoft offered to settle with Lindows.[3] As part of this licensing settlement, Microsoft paid an estimated $24 million cash (for a case that Microsoft itself brought), and Lindows transferred the Lindows trademark to Microsoft and changed their name to Linspire."
What better way to hide a large infusion of cash into a company than to make it look like a settlement? ;)