Hi People,

Microsoft is threatening to sue us over a domain name www.windowssystemoptimizer.com . they had sent us a notice sometime back... to which i had my lawyer reply. now i get this letter again saying that i had better leave it or i get sued! We have been selling the software under this brand for ages now! and they have no rights over the name "Windows System Optimizer".

NEED HELP & ADVICE!

PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE WORD AROUND ... HELP US FIGHT MICROSOFT!

some facts:
Microsoft was infact very recently involved in a very similar case, involving another such domain name and software author who did not want to fight Microsoft and gave up the domain name and the assigned all rights of the same to Microsoft. Soon after which it started using the domain name and launched a product by the same name. http://www.theage.com.au/news/breaking/unhappy-developer-gives-up-defender-name/2005/11/10/1131578147096.html

By Microsoft's own standards they are using the trademark Vista which is owned by another software company in Redmond, and as such Microsoft says "We are only using the word Vista paired with our trademark Windows. The two together - "Windows Vista" - form the name of the next version of the Windows operating system," http://www.theage.com.au/news/breaking/unhappy-developer-gives-up-defender-name/2005/11/10/1131578147096.html

PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE WORD AROUND ... HELP US FIGHT MICROSOFT!

Must mean that microsoft .............has lost ways to make money!

Everytime I buy a product by them..........my system crashes ..and there answer is .........pay us to walk you through it!! BS!!

Stand up to them Abhi..dont let them do that to you!

give it them Abhi... i know we have to leave the domain...just becoz we dont have the resources to fight Microsoft...but then we just cant let them bully us this way???

my point is simple:

1) windows is their trademark *NOT* windows system optimizer
2) they should then stop using Windows Vista name becuase Vista is registered trademark of a softward company a stones throw from the HQ
3) thousand of domains on the internet have the word Windows... and i am sure MS doesnt wanna sue or cannot sue everyone of them... why us?
4) you can help us! put it on blogs so other can pick up the story... spread the word around ... be good

Is there problem just with the domain name? Or is it a problem with the software you are selling? This is a wild thought but what may be happenning is they are getting people who have used your product and is now calling them to help them with the program. I would just make sure you have some type of disclaimer on your website that you are not offilated with Microsoft or have your lawyer look on your website to make sure there is nothing in the application that may infringe on their software.

Microsoft likes to play these games with people because they know they can get away with it, they only hire the best of the best and I am sure that their lawyers have nothing better to do. Unfortunately when they get bored they start picking on us small business owners to see how far they can get.

Anyway I am not sure what advice I can give on the matter since I am not a lawyer or anything. I wish you much luck with this and I hope that you have that name trademarked, otherwise I would save yourself the stress and pick a different domain name. But I would make sure you hold onto the ownership of that domain name so they can't utilize it in the future.

Sophe