- Mike Rowe thinks it's funny that his catchy name for a Web site design company sounds a lot like Microsoft.
...."Since my name is Mike Rowe, I thought it would be funny to add 'soft' to the end of it," said Rowe, a 17-year-old computer geek and Grade 12 student in Victoria, British Columbia.
....Rowe registered the name in August. In November, he received a letter from Microsoft's Canadian lawyers, Smart & Biggar, informing him he was committing copyright infringement.
He was advised to transfer the name to the Redmond, Wash.-based corporation.
....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." [AP]
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Article comments
1 - bhw
Does trademark protection cover homophones? MikeRoweSoft is not the same word as Microsoft. They just sound the same.
2 - jadester
i remember reading somewhere that homophones are covered by trademark protection - hang on, no, it's covered by business registration (at least here in england, dunno about other countries)
i was looking into what you have to do to register a company. In the regularions/laws/whatever they're called that cover company names, you're not (supposed to be) allowed to register a company name:
that is almost identical (there might have been a specific definition but i forget) i.e. identical except for one or two letters
that is actually identical (duh)
that sounds exactly the same when spoken
now, this last point probably as all sorts of extra notes and probably could be argued over almost forever in court, but seeing as MS have rather more money to spend on lawyers, plus the fact that they have a fiercely-protected business image, i'd have thought the kid wouldn't be so stupid. Maybe if he'd called it Mike Rowe Software i'd have a little more sympathy (or if his company actually was in software design/engineering/support/etc., as opposed to web design)
The problem is that so many people DO try and leech off big companies' success by pulling stunts like this, so when someone does it more innocently they get treated the same.
3 - BB
Isn't this a little like the pot calling the kettle black? MS is the major exploiter in the biz. Name me one first it has ever come up with? DOS, IE, Windows - all are knock-offs of others innovation. Litigation such as this is not about right or wrong, black and white. It is about intimidation. McDonald's does the same thing. Even if a name is only remotely similar they will protect their intellectual property vigorously. Most cases like this are settled out of court. Bottom line is Mike Rowe will end up with free publicity and money in his pocket for his trouble.
4 - TDavid
I do think Microsoft has behaved like a bully numerous times in the past, but not in this particular case. If you read a lot of the things he is quoted as saying, they just don't make any sense.
If he actually developed software then he might have a scintilla of a case, but his best course of action would be to run over and register mikerowedesign.com, as he should have done in the first place ;)
5 - BB
Ok TD - so why didn't MS call itself MicroOps? After it all it started out as only an operating system. If Mr. Rowe had named it micro_soft, or something like that then clearly it would have been a rip-off. But he is using his own name. Perhaps Billy should have used a computer to come with a completely original name - like EXXON perhaps.
6 - TDavid
An operating system is a piece of SOFTware, BB :)
7 - bhw
Besides, Gates started out writing languages, like BASIC and FORTRAN.
So we could go on forever asking why he didn't name the company "microlang" or something.
8 - Mark Saleski
because www.mysoftware-isacceptible.com doesn't have that certain je ne sais crois.