Portuguese firm Microsoft to auction name on eBay

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Portuguese firm Microsoft to auction name on eBay

apparently the Microsoft is MSFT in Portugal

walkman

4:41 pm on Jan 14, 2008 (gmt 0)

[uk.reuters.com...]

Microsoft Ltd. is the only company that can use the name Microsoft in Portugal. It registered its name in 1981 while Microsoft Corp, the world's largest software company, began operating in Portugal in 1990.
U.S.-based Microsoft is registered as MSFT in Portugal."

How does this work, is microsoft.com acccessible from portugal or ...?

bill

1:09 am on Jan 15, 2008 (gmt 0)

It's just the brand name from the looks of it. MS owns microsoft.pt and it redirects to microsoft.com for me from Japan.

walkman

7:06 am on Jan 15, 2008 (gmt 0)

or maybe the legal business name...who knows. If you own the trademark, common sense says one would own the url too (.pt would have had their own sunrise period).

bill

11:25 am on Jan 15, 2008 (gmt 0)

The article doesn't specifically mention trademark, and MS has had the domain since 1997. Not many trademark holders were tuned into domains back then. Even if there was a sunrise period in 1997 not as many people would have paid as much attention as they do today.