In 2003, student Mike Rowe created an online presence to advertise his side job as a web designer. The address of his website was MikeRoweSoft.com. This did not please the Windows developer Microsoft at all.
Large corporations do not take lightly the defense of their name rights against use by other companies and individuals. This experience was also faced by Canadian student Mike Rowe over 20 years ago.
Due to the name of his website MikeRoweSoft.com, the company founded by Bill Gates, Microsoft, felt compelled to respond. The student did not want to give up without a fight and reached out to the public to move Microsoft to relent.
Microsoft demanded the student hand over his website
What kind of website was it? Over 20 years ago, the Canadian student Mike Rowe had the idea of creating his own website. The then 17-year-old had a part-time job as a web designer and wanted to advertise it online.
In reference to the software manufacturer Microsoft, he chose the address MikeRoweSoft.com, as his first and last name, when pronounced together, sounded like the first two syllables in the name of the Windows developer.
How did Microsoft react? It took several months for the hardware and software manufacturer to contact Mike. A letter from Microsoft’s lawyers suggested that he hand over the address of his online presence to the Windows developer.
The student did not want to simply hand over the address to the corporation and demanded compensation. The lawyers offered him at that time about 7 euros for the handover. This corresponded to the original costs that Mike had paid for the registration of the address.
Was the offer fair? No, from the student’s perspective, Microsoft’s reaction was anything but fair. Disappointed with the small amount, he decided to offer them MikeRoweSoft.com for a settlement of almost 7,000 euros (via web.archive.org).
Unimpressed, the lawyers sent him a 25-page letter. Mike was accused of having intentionally chosen the address in order to blackmail the corporation with his demand. However, Microsoft did not seem to take action against the clone and sale of an Xbox console.
How did the dispute end? In the meantime, Mike turned to the public. By spreading his story through the press, the student received a lot of attention. Microsoft was now willing to relent and to make the compensation larger (via web.archive.org).
Besides covering the full costs for a new website, the Windows manufacturer also enabled him to participate in various internal programs. Additionally, Mike received an Xbox console with several games.
Anyone who types the address MikeRoweSoft.com into their internet browser today is automatically redirected to microsoft.com.
Mike Rowe at that time demanded about 7,000 euros from the Windows corporation for the handover of his internet address. Significantly more has now been paid by a bidder on eBay for a very special special edition of the first Xbox from Microsoft, even though it is defective: A broken Xbox from 2005 is so special and unique, it was recently sold for over 9,000 euros
