An enterprising Canadian teenager named Mike Rowe got the scare of his life last week when Microsoft's lawyers threatened him with heavy-handed legal action because his Web site, MikeRoweSoft.com, allegedly violated Microsoft's trademark. A high-school student and part-time Web designer, Rowe says he thought the play on names was too funny to pass up, but Microsoft's lawyers weren't laughing when they mailed a 25-page letter to the teen last week demanding that he hand over the domain name. Rowe revealed the altercation to the press, and his story received a lot of attention on the Internet--so much attention, in fact, that Rowe had to temporarily take down the site when 250,000 visits in a 12-hour period overwhelmed the site's bandwidth. Virtually all onlookers loudly criticized Microsoft for its actions. Then, yesterday, Microsoft suddenly backed down, issuing an apology in which the company admitted that it had acted improperly. "We appreciate that Mike Rowe is a young entrepreneur who came up with a creative domain name," the company said in a statement yesterday. "We take our trademark seriously, but maybe a little too seriously in this case." Separately, a Microsoft representative noted that the company is working with Rowe on an equitable settlement. "Microsoft has been in communication with Mr. Rowe in a good-faith effort to reach a mutually agreeable resolution," he said. "And we remain hopeful we can resolve this issue to everyone's satisfaction." Given Microsoft's wrangling with Lindows.com over its name, which is phonetically similar to Windows, Microsoft almost had to threaten Rowe over his MikeRoweSoft.com domain name, legal experts say. According to trademark law, trademark owners are required to defend their trademarks against infringement or risk losing the mark. But few people could argue that Rowe doesn't have a valid claim for the domain name. "It's not [Microsoft's] name," Rowe recently said. "It's my name. I just think it's kind of funny that they'd go after a 17 year old."
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What's the next thing microsoft's gonna go after? Something that starts with "Mi"? "Attention Missouri.com and Michigan.com: we are suing you because your website starts with Mi and Mic, which could resemble MicroSoft." It's getting stupid now.
Bruce Felt January 21, 2004
Ya gotta love lawyers right? I mean... Bloody gits the lot of them!
Christopher Wallick January 21, 2004
"I just think it's kind of funny that they'd go after a 17 year old."
Hey... that's Microsoft.
They think nothing (or never think?) about stealing and infringing on others' IP, ideas, etc but go ballistic when anyone dares come even CLOSE to one of it's "properties".
What a joke MS is... nothing but a marketing and acquisition company. Luckily Apple's around... MS has to get it's inspiration and ideas somewhere :-)
Joe Scozzaro January 21, 2004
Make me think to a spoof where Microsoft was about to sue the Rowe family to stop using your family name: simply ludicrous
Lloyd Dupont January 21, 2004
No one can say that "Mike Rowe Soft" isn't a nod, jab, whatever at Microsoft. It most certainly is. If he had named his site "Mike Rowe Software", there would not have been a single thing said about it.
He named it so that it sounded ilke "Microsoft", if he didn't want to be bothered by them, he shouldn't have phonetically borrowed their name. Who in their right mind would think that you could start a software company or organisation called "MikeRoweSoft" and not have this exact thing happen?
What gets me about it is that he is complaining. Anyone should have seen this coming. You either do it and take it like a man, or better yet, if you don't want to deal with it, come up with a different name. This was no accident. He did this on purpose. Being hassled by Microsoft in this case it just desserts.
Larry January 21, 2004
We think it is so ridiculous that Microsoft, a major company, could even consider going after a 17 year old boy just because his name sounds like their company's. Even worse, the fact that they offered him just ten dollars is downright disrespectful seeing as they have so much money and he worked hard for his website.
Bradley and Kassie January 22, 2004
And do you remember the issue about "Victor's Little Secret", a little sort of soft porn shop? The name got the "Victoria's Secret" stores a bit upset. Turns out that Victor's Little Secret was indeed owned by Victor and his wife and I think they actually won the lawsuit that Victoria's Secret had brought against them.
Good on ya, Mike Rowe ! ! ! LONG LIVE THE LITTLE GUY ! ! !
Dave Cannell January 22, 2004
Microsoft sounds pretty desperate if they have to go after someone like this the way that they did. Are they really feeling that threatened?
Mary Dixon February 02, 2004
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Bruce Felt January 21, 2004