
Microsoft v MikeRoweSoft - TheAuditor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_vs._MikeRoweSoft
======
Taniwha
When I was in college (mid 70s) we wrote a compiler for the 6800 - it fit in
2k, we were very proud .... we copyrighted everything under the name μSoft
(everything was μ this and μ that back then, in retrospect it was a terribly
obvious name).

A year later some upstart showed up on the scene using our name, and he just
had a BASIC interpreter, sooo lame! We were college kids in NZ, pre-internet
we had no real access to the rest of the world so our project, and our name
died .... I so wish we'd incorporated, or at least registered the trademark

~~~
swyx
legally would you be entitled to royalties if you had registered the
trademark? i dont know how long you can squat on a trademark before the
obviously bigger entity has proper claim on it...

~~~
Taniwha
Probably not royalties, but we'd own the name, MS would have to trade under a
different name in NZ (just as Burger King has to operate as "Hungry Jack's" in
Australia), or come to some sort of accommodation.

BTW it's not "squatting" if you've come to the name for a genuine purpose, and
as I said it was a pretty obvious name at the time

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TallGuyShort
If I may play devil's advocate here, I've wondered if the motivation behind
this was actually the fact that if you do not defend your trademark, your
inaction can be used as a defense in future cases and you effectively lose
your trademark. So you may have to pursue cases that you think are ridiculous
to retain your right to pursue cases that you actually take seriously.

~~~
leggomylibro
If I may play devil's advocate to that argument, it sounds like firefighters
selling fire insurance, or something like regulatory capture for the legal
system.

"If you don't hire enough lawyers to defend your trademark, you'll lose it!"

It hurts small actors in both directions; how many Mom/Pop shops can afford to
"aggressively defend" their intellectual property, and how many can afford to
actually defend it if a large incumbent comes after them with a frivolous suit
motivated by these sorts of ridiculous fears?

I'm not saying the legal system doesn't work that way, it just sounds like a
scuzzy argument.

~~~
TallGuyShort
I absolutely don't think it _should_ work that way, and I don't know if
there's a case in which it has worked that way - but I've heard that from
enough legit lawyers that I personally would weigh the cost of losing a
trademark into whether or not my lawyers had my blessing in sending a cease-
and-desist.

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pcunite
Mike Rowe did an AMA:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ajsih/i_am_the_guy_wh...](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ajsih/i_am_the_guy_who_owned_mikerowesoftcom_ama/)

~~~
mproud
He just posted here recently, btw:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16851021](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16851021)

~~~
supermdguy
Link to his comment:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16852133](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16852133)

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swyx
interestingly i dont think this would fly at all in China, where URL's are
entirely made up of homonyms. [https://newrepublic.com/article/117608/chinese-
number-websit...](https://newrepublic.com/article/117608/chinese-number-
websites-secret-meaning-urls)

~~~
ateesdalejr
Or Japan. There are quite a few homonyms there too.

------
limeblack
If you want a funny one today look into JASON[1] vs JSON[2]. Douglas Crockford
hasn't made a fuss yet but it certainly confuses people.

[1]: [https://github.com/xk/JASON](https://github.com/xk/JASON)

[1]:
[https://www.npmjs.com/package/JASON](https://www.npmjs.com/package/JASON)

[2]: [http://www.json.org/](http://www.json.org/)

------
stinkytaco
Trademark is as much to protect consumers as it is to protect companies. For
example, this kid could have shopped his services to unwitting small business
owners in town, the kind of folks who might believe it when someone cold calls
and tells them they have a virus on their computer. Turns out he's probably
not a jerk, but how's Microsoft to know that?

All that said, this was clearly a case of bad PR management by Microsoft. It
can't be that hard for Microsoft to buy off a 12th grader.

------
m_myers
2013 HN discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6074388](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6074388)

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walrus01
also relevant: [http://nissan.com/](http://nissan.com/)

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akskos
this makes me angry

