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Microsoft has suited up against the little guy. Canada's largest intellectual property lawfirm has been hired to go after 17 year old student web developer, Mike Rowe, alleging trademark infringement by his website www.mikerowesoft.com. The software giant might be buoyed by successful domain disputes against microsof.com and micr0soft.com; but these are the least of its worries.

Microsoft could be frustrated even more by serious obstructionists like Microsuck, which has been denigrating the software giant for more than four years. The Microsoft Eradication Society is now going for a higher public profile and television coverage by dropping the f word from its original domain name. Microsuck can only hope that it gets sued, too.

In this overlawyered world, nothing gets more media attention than a silly lawsuit by Goliath against David. Mike Rowe's use of his domain name might seem benign, as he explains in an interview:
"I didn't do this to make money," Rowe said in an interview on Friday. He's serious about trying to keep his on-line name out there in cyberspace, but also admitted "I'm having a little bit of fun."

He thought it would be a "cool" name for his business since it had his name in it and "the same phonetic sound as the famous company Microsoft."
His legal defence might be stronger if he were using his domain name to criticize and mock the software giant, bringing his use within established exceptions to trademark protection -- fair comment or parody.
Posted by abnu on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 @ 7:37 AM [ + ]

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