Lasse Penttinen
19 Jan 2004 9:58
The M$ is very aggressive in protecting it's brand. Meet Mike Rowe, a 17-year old Canadien, who is now targeted by Microsoft since he registered the domain mikerowesoft.com. Microsoft feels that this infringes their copyright and that the domain was registered for the sole purpose of selling it for profit. They have offered a mighty 10$ settlement deal for Mike Rowe to solve the issue.
Mike Rowe, who registered the domain name in August 2003, received an email from Microsoft's lawyers three months later asking him to transfer the domain name to Microsoft. They also offered to pay him a "settlement" of $10 (£5.55), which is the cost of his original registration fee.Mike Rowe may have received a lousy settlement deal, but this hilarious incident is sure to create a lot of short term attention for his domain.
"I was surprised that they would offer such a little amount of money to persuade me to hand my domain over," said Rowe, who wrote back telling them that he had worked hard on the site and spent money printing stationary, but would be willing to give it up for $10,000. In response, he received a 25-page letter explaining why Microsoft's customers could get confused between his site and their site.