www.mikerowesoft.com wrote:I received an email from Smart & Biggar, Microsoft's Canadian lawyers, informing me that I have been committing copyright infringement against Microsoft. They told me that I must transfer my domain name over to Microsoft as soon as possible. I was baffled by this email, yet thought it was funny at the same time. Microsoft was going after a 17 year olds part time business that he put a lot of time into just because it has the same phonetic sound as their company.
I responded to this email saying that I was not ready to give up my domain name since I had put so much time and effort into establishing my name, getting my business cards out and posting my services on the Internet. If I were to give up my domain, I would lose all the time and effort I had put into it. I requested that they offer me a settlement of some sort to help with me losing my business. A few days later I received an email back from them telling me that they would give me all of my out-of-pocket expenses for the domain name, which came to be $10USD. I was surprised that they would offer such a little amount of money to persuade me to hand my domain over to Microsoft. In response to this recent email, I sent one back to them describing how much work I have put into my business and that the domain was worth at least $10000. They refused to give me anything more than $10USD so I proceeded to ignore their most recent email. I didn't hear anything from them after their last email.
Yesterday, January 14, I received a package from the lawyers' office FedEx Priority Overnight. Inside I found a book over an inch thick with a 25 page letter explaining to me that I had all along had the intention to sell my domain name to Microsoft for a large cash settlement. This is not the case, I never thought my name would cause Microsoft to take this course of action against me. I just thought it was a good name for my small part-time business. In this letter it explains that Microsoft's customers could get confused between my page and theirs, which doesn't make any sense since Microsoft doesn't design websites. They do, however, sell a program called Microsoft FrontPage, which they say can cause some confusion between me making websites for my customers and them selling a program to make websites to their customers. I think it is just another example of a huge corporation just trying to intimidate a small business person (and only a 17 year old student at that) to get anything they want by using lawyers and threats. It reminds me of the Starbucks thing against the little coffee shop in the Queen Charlotte Islands. (http://www.cbc.ca/storyview/CBC/2003/04 ... cks_030417)
They have a nice opinion of customers,like people could be confused between Microsoft and mikerowsoft....good idea BG say that you think your clients are morons.
Jerry Orbach 1935 2004 Admiral Valdemar~You know you've fucked up when Wacky Races has more realistic looking vehicles than your own.
For copyright infringement, they would have to show MikeRoweSoft could actually be mistaken for Microsoft by a reasonable person. However, that's not the name of the lawsuit game. When corporations sue individuals, the purpose is to financially ruin the target of the lawsuit or disrupt his life to such an extent that he is forced to give in. It doesn't even matter if the lawsuit has merit.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
Companies are required by law to take action to defend against the infringement or dilution of their trademark, at risk of losing said trademark for failing to do so. In addition, Rowe screwed up by offering to sell the domain (and then refusing the counter-offer) since that could imply that he's been squatting on the domain.
However, Microsoft has relented - this threat may be sufficient means of Microsoft defending their trademark.
EDIT: Not that I'm defending Microsoft's heavy-handed actions here, don't get me wrong!
it depends on how it's pronounced i assume. although if he'd spelled it mike-rowesoft, then there wouldn't be nearly as big an issue. that hyphen makes all the difference.
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
Montcalm wrote:They have a nice opinion of customers,like people could be confused between Microsoft and mikerowsoft....good idea BG say that you think your clients are morons.
In text, obviously not. When spoken though, yes, it could be.
