In 2003, a student created an online presence to advertise his part-time IT job. The address of his website was MikeRoweSoft.com, consisting of his full name and the ending “Soft”. The Windows developer Microsoft didn’t like this at all.
Large corporations are no joke when it comes to defending their name rights against use by other companies and people. Canadian student Mike Rowe also had this experience over 20 years ago.
Because of the name of its website MikeRoweSoft.com, the company Microsoft, founded by Bill Gates, was forced to react accordingly. The student didn’t want to give up without a fight and turned to the public to get Microsoft to back down.
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Microsoft only wanted to pay students 9 euros for a website with its name
What kind of website was that? Over 20 years ago, student Mike Rowe from Canada came up with the idea of creating his own website. The then 17-year-old had a part-time job as a programmer for websites and wanted to advertise it online.
Based on the software manufacturer Microsoft, he chose the address MikeRoweSoft.com because his first and last name, when pronounced together, closely resembled the first two syllables in the Windows developer’s name.
How did Microsoft react to this? It took a few months for the hardware and software manufacturer to get in touch with Mike. In a letter from Microsoft’s lawyers, he was advised to hand over the address of his online presence to the Windows developer.
The student didn’t want to just give the address to the company and demanded compensation. At that time, the lawyers offered him the equivalent of 9 euros for the release. This was the original cost Mike paid to register the address.
Was the offer fair? No, from the student’s perspective, Microsoft’s response was anything but fair. Disappointed by the small sum, he decided in return to offer them MikeRoweSoft.com for a severance payment of over 9,000 euros (via web.archive.org).
Unimpressed, the lawyers sent him a 25-page letter. Mike was accused of having chosen the address on purpose in order to blackmail the company with his demands. However, Microsoft did not appear to be taking action against the reproduction and sale of an Xbox console.
How did the argument end? Meanwhile, Mike addressed the public. By spreading his story through the press, the student received a lot of attention. Microsoft was now ready to give in and increase the compensation (via web.archive.org).
In addition to covering the full cost of a new website, the Windows manufacturer also enabled him to participate in various internal programs. Additionally, Mike received an Xbox console with several games.
Nowadays, anyone who enters the address MikeRoweSoft.com in their Internet browser automatically lands on microsoft.com.
At that time, Mike Rowe demanded over 9,000 euros from Microsoft for releasing his Internet address. A bidder on eBay has now paid almost the same amount for a very special special edition of the first Xbox, even though it is defective: A broken Xbox from 2005, so special and unique, has now been sold for over 9,000 euros