Microsoft comes after Mike Rowe's software company

January 17th, 2004
By Norman Gidney

A Vancouver Island high school student who does Web site design part-time is locked in a legal battle with one of the biggest companies in the world.

Microsoft Corp. of Seattle, currently valued at $300 billion US, wants Mike Rowe to give up www.mikerowesoft.com as his Internet domain name. The company claims copyright infringement of its name.

Through its law firm in Canada, Microsoft has offered him $10 US -- what Rowe paid last August to register the domain.

The 17-year-old Grade 12 student at Belmont High School near Victoria is taking math and chemistry this semester and hopes to study computer science at the University of Victoria next fall.

"I didn't do this to make money," Rowe said in an interview on Friday. He's serious about trying to keep his on-line name out there in cyberspace, but also admitted "I'm having a little bit of fun."

He thought it would be a "cool" name for his business since it had his name in it and "the same phonetic sound as the famous company Microsoft."

Rowe has been working on computers since he was 11 and last year earned $1,000 designing Web sites.

A big part of it was a prize for a professional-looking U.S. bulletin board Web site called wholycow.com, on holistic health issues. Way down at the bottom, the site credits Mike Rowe Soft Design.

One of Rowe's teachers, Miriam Vos-Guenter, praised him. "He's a great student, and a nice kid, really nice."

She wonders why a big company like Microsoft would pursue him.

"I don't know why. It's one of those coincidences of life. That happens to be his name," she said.

It took a while for Microsoft to come after Mike Rowe Soft, but on Nov. 19, Rowe got an e-mail from law firm Smart & Biggar, claiming he was infringing copyright and demanding that he transfer his domain name to Microsoft.

He replied asking for some financial assistance for losing the name and site. He told the lawyers how much work he put into the business and said the domain name was worth at least $10,000.

This week, a fat package of correspondence was couriered to Rowe's home, which claimed that all along his intention was to extract "a large cash settlement."

Customers of Microsoft could also be confused by the mikerowsoft Web page, the letter said.

Others have tried Microsoft look-alike domain names such as microsof.com and micr0soft.com but lost the fight.