UPDATE: Microsoft settles, pays Teen RomzBox

Lam3. Microsoft should focus on hunting down Chinese pirates.

Courtesy of CNN News:

Microsoft takes on teen's site MikeRoweSoft.com

Monday, January 19, 2004 Posted: 9:25 AM EST (1425 GMT)

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- It's Microsoft versus Mike Rowe-soft.

Rowe, a 17-year-old high school senior and Web designer from Victoria, has angered the software giant by registering an Internet site with the address www.MikeRoweSoft.com.

"Since my name is Mike Rowe, I thought it would be funny to add 'soft' to the end of it," said Rowe.

Microsoft, however, is not amused.

It has demanded that he give up his domain name. In November, Rowe received a letter from Microsoft's Canadian lawyers informing him he was committing copyright infringement.

"I didn't think they would get all their high-priced lawyers to come after me," Rowe said.

He wrote back asking to be compensated for giving up his name. Microsoft's lawyers offered him $10 in U.S. funds. Then he asked for $10,000.

On Thursday, he received a 25-page letter accusing him of trying to force Microsoft into giving him a large settlement.

"I never even thought of getting anything out of them," he said, adding that he only asked for the $10,000 because he was "sort of mad at them for only offering 10 bucks."

Microsoft company spokesman Jim Desler said Sunday, "Microsoft has been in communication with Mr. Rowe in a good faith effort to reach a mutually agreeable resolution."

Rowe is keeping his sense of humor.

"It's not their name. It's my name. I just think it's kind of funny that they'd go after a 17-year-old," Rowe said.

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Only thing better is the RIAA muscling a 14 yr old girl who lives on what amounts to welfare for downloading music for "free." You have to love giant corporations.

I'm confused on this. So what are they suing him over exactly, the use of his name, or the fact he used the word "SOFT" after his name? Do they have a legal trademark on the word SOFT? Is that the problem? If that's it, that's just proof ole' Billy Boy & Co. need to go down a dark alley full of disgruntle patrons who's systems have crashed and have a bone to pick with him and his over glorified B.S. conglomerate.

BAH!

MD20XX / Storm Rider

Just another case of big corporations with nothing better to do. And I'd be insulted too if they offered me $10, I probably would have replied with a fuck you AND ask for $10K

this is the stupidest thing I've heard in quite a while. Last time I checked, it wasn't copyright infringement to use homophones. I mean, there is a park in Louisiana called, "diz nee" and a casino here in Arizona called "hon-dah", yet you don't see them getting sued. I could sort of understand it is this guy was in a similar industry as microsoft (there was a case in which Victoria's Secret went after a Kentuky sex shop called "Victor's Little Secret"), but clearly he's not.

I hope this case gets dismissed, and the Judge and audience laughs Microsoft's high priced lawyers right out of the courtroom.

What a load of crap. I'm not exactly mr. anti-establishment, but this is fat cat coporate pigs at their worst.

MegaDrive 20XX said:

I'm confused on this. So what are they suing him over exactly, the use of his name, or the fact he used the word "SOFT" after his name? Do they have a legal trademark on the word SOFT? Is that the problem? If that's it, that's just proof ole' Billy Boy & Co. need to go down a dark alley full of disgruntle patrons who's systems have crashed and have a bone to pick with him and his over glorified B.S. conglomerate.

BAH!

MD20XX / Storm Rider

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I think it's the same idea behind Nintendo fighting for host names, such as Zelda.com (which was porn at one point) and so on.

MikeRoweSoft sounds like Microsoft, so they think they have some legal right to the host name.

I hope they take it to court and lose to a 17 yr old. Fart knockers.

It is not even spelled the same so they can not do crap.

Bunch of pigs !

Porr old boy, I hope he beats them in court.

Rock on MikeRoweSoft !

Actually, this is funny. I do hope MS loses to him as well. I mean, it is his name and nobody should ever be infringed for making a company with his own name in it, unless someone else already did it with the exact same letters. Even though, if I were him, I'd probably not even had brought up the issue in the first place. I probably, for the sake of sounding different, would've made it MikeRoweWare, or something. Or open a sound studio and call it Mike Rowe Wave. Or start an education program for aspiring writers and poets and call it Mike Rowe Prose.

(Man, I could go on all day with these puns). Er. Sorry.

Yeah, this is total crap that Microsoft thinks they have the rights to MikeRoweSoft.com

I just wonder what the end result will be of all of this.

The kid will get some money out of this...that's for sure..and it's stupid that they'd chase after something THIS stupid...

this is as stupid as spike lee suing Spike TV for using his name.

slerch666 said:

I think it's the same idea behind Nintendo fighting for host names, such as Zelda.com (which was porn at one point) and so on.

MikeRoweSoft sounds like Microsoft, so they think they have some legal right to the host name.

I hope they take it to court and lose to a 17 yr old. Fart knockers.

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Hehe, I remember going to zelda.com before OoT came out, looking for information. Any information I found had nothing to do with any video game though...

You would think that multi-billion dollar mega companies would have better things to do with their time than harass a teenage kid.

Mike Rowe soft and Microsoft. No one is going to confuse the two. I predict this being dissmised by the courts. In fact I hope they have to pay this kid a hefty sum of cash for bothering him. I mean really, this is absurd.

I'm going to make ppphhhhhrrrrrbbttt.com and sue people everytime they fart. Assuming that the fart noise is spelled that way, it was hard to sound out.

CraigPilecky said:

You would think that multi-billion dollar mega companies would have better things to do with their time than harass a teenage kid.

Mike Rowe soft and Microsoft. No one is going to confuse the two. I predict this being dissmised by the courts. In fact I hope they have to pay this kid a hefty sum of cash for bothering him. I mean really, this is absurd.

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Thats the thing, they dont have better things to do, look at were they are. They got so bored of having their heads up their asses for so long they decide to pull out and go start some shit.

quick legal faq:

(1) What can MS sue Mike Rowe for?

Trademark infringement. Trademark (or that "TM" symbol) is the area of Intellectual Property that protects symbols (usually business symbols) that have significant identification value for an entity.

(2) Does spelling matter in a TM suit?

No. If spelling mattered, I'd open a new software company called "Happle" and sell cutsey neon hipster computers.

(3) Does it matter that Mr. Rowe is in Canada?

Not at all. Obviously, MS has offices in Canada and could sue them under Canadian law -but even if that didn't work (or if MS was to small to be in Canada), the have always been exceptions to help companies sue about TM in other countries. Why? Because TM is vital to a business' identity (which is supposedly more important than any one property).

(4)What's happened before in cases like this?

A few famous ones:
(1) someone named McDonald was able to get a moderate sum out of McDonald's over www.mcdonalds.com
(2) a Dr. Nissan who had his own business website lost to Nissan over www.nissan.com in court, Dr. Nissan received nothing other than a small amount to buy the rights
(3) Budweiser got locked in a battle with "the Original Budweiser" (a Czech beer company in operation for over 200 years) over the budweiser.com address. They settled out of court and the Czech company can be found at www.budweiser.cz

(5)Who would probably win?

I'm by no means certain, but I'd chalk this one up for MS. While Mike Rowe is being funny (and that's probably 99% of why he was warned the way he was), the next person creating "Mikroesoft.com" might not be. No Court wants to create some bizarre precedent that will make later trials more difficult.

While he's asking for a modest sum ($10k), this could easily be misused and turned into cybersquatting -which is frowned upon in a lot of courts.

(6) Do I agree with this suit?

No. Waste of time and expenditure -I bet its being pushed by someone who needs to legitimize their job title in MS.

(7) Will this suit go to trial?

Probably not. It'll settle quietly, in who's favor? Who knows.

Thanks for the analysis Bobak. I was really hoping that you, as our resident legal expert, would eventually post your thoughts in this thread.

That's a real bummer that MS might win because doing otherwise would set a bad precedent though. IMO, letting MS win sets an equally bad precedent, making homophones fair game for any company to sue. oh well, c'est la vie.

Bobak, what if Mike Rowe was spelled MichaelRoweSoft or MikeRoweSoft (with Rowe being pronounced more like row as in row a boat). Would that make any difference?

Edit: God damn it, I meant Rowe like "Raow" instead of like "Ro". It's hard to write out pronounciations other than just by saying it.

Lets Gekiga In said:

Bobak, what if Mike Rowe was spelled MichaelRoweSoft or MikeRoweSoft (with Rowe being pronounced more like row as in row a boat). Would that make any difference?

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Yeah I think having it MikeRoweSoft.com would change EVERYTHING

Lets Gekiga In said:

Bobak, what if Mike Rowe was spelled MichaelRoweSoft or MikeRoweSoft (with Rowe being pronounced more like row as in row a boat). Would that make any difference?

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michaelrowesoft would likely be fine, as for caps/no-caps -doesn't matter.

I remember my dad once mentioning that in a trademark infringement case, there is a burden for the trademark holder to claim there is "damage" to their name by another company using it. (Hence, Lotus Notes can exist despite Lotus cars- there's little doubt the software company and car company are unrelated).

Now, my dad has admitted to not be a copyright/trademark lawer by any means, but would that apply int his case? Is it reasonable to claim this kid is hurting Microsoft's name?

Your dad is right -and that's why I'm not certain MS would win.

However, while Rowe would definitely win if it were a parody/mockery/etc, it seems like he does take it kind of seriously since its his name (unfortunately, from looking at his website he doesn't look too bright, so it's a muddy line).

I think, because Rowe hasn't stated that is won't be a future company (he could start selling "MikeRoweSoft" software tommorrow) and since its very unclear as to what his intentions are (at least until a lawyer helps him draft a statement) he could get nailed.

If the court does not see a definite intent to try and compete (and hence damage) MS, the Court might still want to keep this sort of borderline website from turning into an infringing website by holding against any website that does not clearly state that it isn't intended to damage (in name and in practice) MS's market.

This case would be interesting, but it depends on whether the two parties are willing to take it to its conclusion

Nesagwa said:

Yeah I think having it MikeRoweSoft.com would change EVERYTHING

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I corrected what I said in the previous post. Read it again, bitte.