Microsoft sues resellers for piracy
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As part of its fight against software piracy, Microsoft has begun legal proceedings against eight resellers for allegedly buying and selling fake and used Certificate of Authenticity labels.
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KIRKLAND -- A local company is one of several across the country targeted by Microsoft Corp. in a spate of copyright and trademark infringement lawsuits filed Monday.
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InfoWorld - A California-based software company has filed a patent infringement suit against Microsoft over two patents that enable the creation of virtual private networks.
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Microsoftâs anti-piracy campaign is getting down to the nitty gritty of sticky labels that affix to PCs and software packaging. The company revealed today itâs cracking down on the illegal use of certificates
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Resellers are accused of selling products with fake Certificate of Authenticity labels.
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Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday announced   20 lawsuits against resellers allegedly engaged in the   distribution of infringing software and software components.
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Several California cities and counties have sued Microsoft, accusing the software giant of illegally charging inflated prices for its products because of monopoly control of the personal computer operating systems market.
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Software company VirnetX filed suit against Microsoft Thursday, accusing the Redmond company of infringing on two of its patents regarding virtual private networking.
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Microsoft Corp. will combat piracy of  its flagship operating system by requiring Windows users to  verify that their copy of the software is genuine in order to  receive timely updates and security fixes, the world's largest  software maker said on Wednesday.
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(InfoWorld) - A French CD duplicator has agreed to compensate MicrosoftÂ after producing discs with unauthorized copies of Microsoft software, the companies said Tuesday. In 2003 a Thai subsidiary of the French company MPO Group produced 20,000 counterfeit copies of Microsoft's Exchange and SQL Server products, the software vendor said. MPO blamed the incident on a misunderstanding over licenses: it had copied the discs for a third party claiming to be licensed by Microsoft to distribute the software, but that license later turned out to be forged, Microsoft said. Microsoft does not allow its software to be reproduced under a third-party license in that way, it said. MPO has a disk replication agreement directly with Microsoft for other software. MPO, based in Averton, France, paid Microsoft compensation for the incident, said Audrey Bernal, a spokeswoman for the CD duplicator. Microsoft described the compensation as a "multimillion dollar settlement." Microsoft tracked down the source of the counterfeit software by making test purchases in Asia and examining the discs. MPO cooperated with the investigation, Microsoft said. The software vendor warns buyers to look out for certain warning signs to help them identify counterfeit software, including making sure that it comes from a reputable source and looks like the genuine article. It is unclear how those guidelines help in cases such as this, where the disputed discs were copied by a company authorized by Microsoft to duplicate other software. Although MPO joined the International Recording Media Association's Anti-Piracy Compliance Program in 2005, its plant in Thailand is not yet on the list of IRMA Anti-Piracy Certified Plants.
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In a federal district court in Seattle on Friday, Microsoft filed suit against ten "John Does," one of whom goes by the screen handle "viodentia," for allegedly using stolen Microsoft source code as a means to crack Windows Media DRM.
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Window blinds reseller had accused Google of trademark infringement in its sale of ad words.
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Microsoft has filed its first lawsuits over allegedly counterfeit and illicit certificates of authenticity, the labels attached to software packages and computers to verify the legitimacy of the programs inside.
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VirnetX is seeking damages and an injunction against the Redmond, Wash., software giant.
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Several California cities and counties, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, sued Microsoft Corp. on Friday, accusing the software giant of illegally charging inflated prices for its products because of monopoly control of the personal computer operating system market.
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Microsoft has sued domain name registrar Red Register claiming that it is illegally profiting from Microsoft&#39;s trademarks.In a lawsuit filed in Seattle earlier this month Microsoft alleges that Red Register snatched up 125 domain names, all &quot;confusingly similar to Microsoft&#39;s Marks&quot; in order to profit from Web advertising, a practice known as typosquatting and cybersquatting.Web surfers may be tricked into clicking on ads on these sites &quot;because the person finds it easier to click on the advertisement or hyperlink than to continue searching for the Microsoft site, or because the person mistakenly believes Microsoft has authorized or endorsed the advertisements,&quot; the filings state.Typosquatting is the practice of registering domain names that contain misspellings of trademark terms. Cybersquatting is the registration of a variant of trademark.Red Register owns domains such as windowslivecare.com, msnmesnger.com, and ageofmathology.com, Microsoft said in court filings.Microsoft is seeking to take control of the Red Register domains and is asking for the court to fine the company for unspecified damages. The lawsuit was filed Dec. 4 in King County Superior Court in Seattle.Although the domains are now registered to a Tortola, Virgin Islands, company named Versata Software, they were previously registered to Red Register and Microsoft believes the current Versata registration information to be false, the filings state.Domain registrars historically made money by registering domain names to third parties, but that has changed as it has become easier to get into the domain name game. Now many registrars have begun to amass portfolios of domains themselves, or even temporarily registering domains and then dropping them before they are required to pay any fees, a practice called &quot;domain tasting,&quot; said Karl Kronenberger, a partner with Kronenberger Burgoyne LLP, a law firm specializing in Internet disputes.Some companies have even set up several domain name registrars and they pass their domain names from one to the other without ever having to pay fees. This is possible, because domains can be held for three days before any fees are due, Kronenberger said.Registrars must be accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the group that oversees the Internet&#39;s domain name system, but once that has happened they can get better access to the database of domain names. Companies like Microsoft and Google have become accredited registrars for this reason.There are presently more than 1,000 registrars worldwide, according to Kronenberger. &quot;It costs US$8,000 per year to maintain your existence as a registrar,&quot; he said. &quot;once you pay that, you can register domains very cheaply.&quot;Some registrars have amassed valuable portfolios without running afoul of trademark law, but Microsoft&#39;s Red Register lawsuit is not unprecedented. In October, Yahoo filed a similar lawsuit against Belgium Domains . One month later another lawsuit was filed against Belgium Domains, this time by Dell.Kronenberger said the Microsoft lawsuit &quot;seems to be a pretty straightforward case of a registrar registering large batches of domains containing trademarks.&quot;Microsoft has filed at least five other similar lawsuits in recent years. In March it announced that reached a $2 million settlement against Jason Cox of New Mexico and Newtonarch LLC. It also announced a $1 million settlement in a similar suit against Partner IV Holdings.Microsoft and Red Register did not immediately return e-mail seeking comment for this story.&#160;
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(SEATTLE) - A Raleigh-based company is named in a lawsuit filed by Microsoft on claims of counterfeit and illicit certificates of authenticity, the labels on software and computers that are supposed to show the products are legitimate.