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Small Business Owner Takes Pro Se Sling to Goliath, and Wins

By Carolyn Elefant

It's unusual for a solo to prevail in a battle against a deep-pocketed company like Microsoft. And it's rarer still when that solo isn't a lawyer at all, but a solo business owner. Yet as The Connecticut Law Tribune reports, Kent Johnson, the sole owner of Compatible Computers, did just that: He stood up to accusations of computer piracy and trademark infringement in a lawsuit Microsoft filed against his company, and prevailed. Back in 2007, Microsoft first accused Johnson's computer repair business of infringing its trademarks by selling a pirated version of Microsoft Office 2003. Johnson admitted that he had purchased and resold three copies of Microsoft Office 2003 but he had no idea the software was counterfeit. Microsoft discovered the illegal sale through a sting operation, in which a Microsoft investigator asked Johnson to buy and install a copy of Microsoft 2003 on her computer. Subsequently, Microsoft sued Johnson in federal court, alleging that he was profiting from ?reproductions, copies, or colorable imitations of the Microsoft copyrighted software," and engaged in a "pattern of abuse." In response, Johnson denied that there was a pattern of abuse -- just a single instance of infringement (the one that involved the sting...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on August 03, 2009 (boomark / email).