[ga] mikerowesoft

[RBHauptman@xxxxxxx]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/15/mocosoft_beats_microsoft/

Microsoft  halted in phonetic domain crusade

By Kieren McCarthy
Published  Wednesday 15th December 2004 17:11 GMT
Microsoft has been knocked back in its  increasingly bizarre domain name grab
by Spanish company  Mocosoft.

Domain arbitrator WIPO, meeting in Spain, has decided that  Microsoft is not
entitled to the domain "mocosoft.com" despite the fact that  some of the same
letters appear in both companies' names. The site hosts a  long list of
downloadable applications.

The decision comes on the back  off a year-long crusade by Microsoft to take
ownership of all and any domains  that even sound like its own name. Most
famously, Microsoft lawyers descended  on 17-year-old student Mike Rowe in
January insisting he hand over his domain  "mikerowesoft.com". The claim was
clearly ludicrous but following heavy press  interest, Microsoft went into PR
mode and Mike Rowe was dazzled into handing  over the domain by a plethora of
gifts.

At the time, and despite  Microsoft claims otherwise, we reported that the
software giant was following  the same tactics with a number of other
domains. Incredibly, one such person  who stood up to Microsoft, Mike
Rushton, subsequently had his domain given to  Microsoft by WIPO.

"Mikerosoft.net" was too close to Microsoft's  trademark and so had clearly
been registered in bad faith, the sole panellist  Nels T. Lippert decided in
April this year. It was just the latest flawed  decision in a system
virtually designed to provide corporate friendly  decisions with little or no
justification.

That decision was largely  built on a previous decision which, while we have
issues with some aspects of  it, is far clearer. Tarek Ahmed was forced to
hand over "microsof.com" in  July 2000. The WIPO sole panellist Frederick M.
Abbott gave a lengthy and  considered response to the opposing claims and
decided in Microsoft  favour.

However, that decision was then used (wrongly in our opinion) to  justify
handing over "Mikerosoft.net" to Microsoft. And in turn the  mikerosoft.net
decision was then used in an effort to get hold of  "mocosoft.com".

But in this case, the WIPO panel - a three-person panel  that it cost
Mocosoft to introduce comprising Roberto Bianchi, Gabriela Paiva  Hantke and
Angel Garcia Vidal - did not join the cumulative  justification
rollercoaster. It decided that "moco" just wasn't phonetically  close enough
to "micro" to use the "precedent" set by  mikerosoft.net.