This article is more than 1 year old

Microsoft? Ha! Trademark law? Phooey!

Brave domain owner comes out with fists flying

He may be weighed against the might of Microsoft and trademark law but brave domain owner Mike Chatha has refused to back down and has instead come out fighting.

Last week, we reported how Mike had received a legal letter the Beast of Redmond insisting he hand over his domain www.xbox.ws or pay the price. Microsoft claimed that since Mike had offered the domain and another (www.xbox.us.com) for sale, it had no choice but to apply its trademark and insist the domain was handed over.

We pointed out that this was sadly true and appeared to point to a surprisingly tolerant attitude from Microsoft towards non-profit sites that infringed its trademarks.

Mike is made of sterner stuff though and has updated his site with a defence of his site. In it, he alleges that:

  • Microsoft tried to trick him into negotiating a price for the domain by using an anonymous Hotmail address - courtneystuart@hotmail.com

  • That Microsoft knew about the existence of his xbox.ws site because he cited it as the reason he should be allowed to register xbox.biz during that domain’s sunrise period. Microsoft knows because it objected and won the domain instead.

  • Mike claims that the second domain - xbox.us.com - is not registered and has never been registered and provides a link to show it can still be bought for £65 (Microsoft says Mike’s site offered to sell it for £795)

  • Microsoft’s lawyers have failed to get back to him despite repeated attempts to contact them


It seems that Mike is not one easily intimidated and we wish him all the best in defending his claim. Although we fear he may have blown his one chance to retain the domain. Here is Mike's response to our earlier article. ®

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