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To: Lynn who wrote (5599)	1/20/2004 4:04:38 PM
From: dantecristo	Respond to of 12465

Microsoft lightens up on teen's Web site Tue 20 January, 2004 20:24 TORONTO (Reuters) - Microsoft has indicated it may have overreacted to the Web site of Canadian teenager Mike Rowe who added the word "soft" to his name and registered the address mikerowesoft.com. "We take our trademark seriously, but in this case maybe a little too seriously," Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said. "We appreciate that Mike Rowe is a young entrepreneur who came up with a creative domain name, so we're currently in the process of resolving this matter in a way that will be fair to him and satisfy our obligations under trademark law," Desler said. In November, Microsoft's Canadian lawyers demanded that Rowe, 17, change the name of his Internet site, claiming copyright infringement. They said they would pay Rowe, who lives in Victoria, British Columbia, $10 for his trouble. But the high school student decided to fight back and his story got media attention to the extent that he was forced to shut down his Web site on Monday morning after getting about 250,000 hits. He managed to get the site back up after moving to a service provider with greater capacity. "I never expected this type of feedback. I have put up a defence fund so that I can hire a lawyer to guide me through the process of talking to Microsoft.... I could never think this could happen, even in my wildest dreams," Rowe wrote on his site. Rowe is demanding $10,000 from Microsoft to change the site's name. reuters.co.uk