Company accuses eight companies of distributing counterfeit and/or infringing Microsoft software or software components.
Computer software giant Microsoft today announced they’d filed eight lawsuits against companies in Arizona, California Illinois, Minnesota and New York. Each company named in these lawsuits is accused of distributing counterfeit and/or infringing Microsoft software or software components. Microsoft, based upon tips they’d received on their anti-piracy hotline, filed some of the lawsuits after purchasing evidence against the alleged pirates through secret shoppers. Other lawsuits were filed based upon evidence gathered in the company’s test purchase program, which is used to test the authenticity of products purchased from resellers. Two of the lawsuits filed were against business allegedly in violation of settlement agreements they’d already entered into with Microsoft. The companies named in the lawsuits include BWT Industry Technology Service Inc., an Arizona corporation, doing business as Computer Max Co. of Sierra Vista, Ariz.; Data Day USA Inc., of Vallejo, Calif.; MicroCity4Less.com, et al., of Torrance, Calif.; Winvtech Solutions, Inc., (aka Winvision Computers and Winvision Technology) of South El Monte, Calif.; Global Computing Inc. of Addison, Ill.; Ion Technologies Corp. of Minneapolis, Minn.; Compustar Co. of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Chips & Techs of New York, N.Y. "Microsoft does not take legal action lightly. We remain very serious about protecting honest software resellers and consumers from the illegal activities of software counterfeiters," said Mary Jo Schrade, senior attorney at Microsoft.
