Microsoft is about the most agressive competitor you can imagine. If you throw a tiny stone in their direction without even realizing it, they throw a 10.000 pound bomb back at you.
Today I read this in a dutch newspaper:
A small, one man company in holland, with the name \"Microsoof\" decided to reserve a 0800 phone number for his company to provide a free phone number for his clients. You can imagine that the phone number would be 0800-microso(of) (the last 2 digits don\'t fit, but it doesn\'t matter if you use them anyway).
This was what Microsoft did:
Shortly after he reserved the numbers (Microsoft hadn\'t done that them selves, so the numbers were free), Microsoft\'s lawyers send him a letter stating he had to give the number to Microsoft within 10 days, and pay for the transfer himself.
The second letter threatend with a 50.000 Euro (57.000 dollar) fine for every time he would hurt the name Microsoft.
He didn\'t agree and Microsoft sued him, making him look like a criminal in court. Luckily the judge did not agree with Microsoft and denied their claim. The little one man busines can keep his numbers for now. Microsoft will appeal to the decission.
? What�s up with this kind of behaviour,... why not give the guy 25.000 dollars and buy the number from him? They want to make him pay for their own mistake of forgetting to register such obvious numbers?
It just reminds me of a student in the seventies that had a small computer company that he ran from his garage,... guess what his name is.
Regards,
Peter
