Gotta love over zealous lawyers

A 17-year-old kid up in Canada wanted to start a company Web site to show off some of the Web sites he's done so he could possibly make a few bucks off it. His name? Mike Rowe. His company? MikeRoweSoft Designs. The problem? Microsoft and MikeRoweSoft are pronounced the same. The bigger problem? Microsoft has too much money and too many lawyers. Needless to say, the kid's been getting a bunch of exposure because of this whole mess, and has had to move between hosting companies, so donate a buck so the kid can keep his site alive.

Update on 1/28: The kid sold out, and Microsoft got a great PR victory out of it:

And then, apparently as part of the settlement, we have the following information PR information: it has invited and will pay all expenses for Mark and his family to go the Microsoft campus in March for the Research Tech Fest. He could meet Bill Gates! But no promises.

It will pay for Mike to get Microsoft Certification training! This could mean he come a support technician, or system administrator! It has paid for his subscription to MSDN, Microsoft’s developer network site! And, last but not least, it will give Mike a free Xbox with whatever games he wants!

Oh well. At least he'll make some money selling the original Microsoft letter on eBay. The bid's currently at $1,375.00 (with eight days to go).

And of course, this whole situation has produced some pretty good satire.

No Comments Yet

Post a comment