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A Canadian teenager called Mike Rowe who added the word soft to his name for his website title, has been ordered by Microsoft to hand over the domain.

The 17-year-old has been told by the company that his site infringes on their copyright and could confuse their customers.

The teenager, from British Columbia, received a letter from Microsoft's lawyers in November, requesting that he transfer his domain name over to them immediately. He refused, reports theDesign Technica website.

"I was not ready to give up my domain name since I had put so much time and effort into establishing my name, getting my business cards out and posting my services on the internet. If I were to give up my domain, I would lose all the time and effort I had put into it."

He requested a monetary settlement and Microsoft countered with an offer for $10 (about £6), which was his domain registration costs.

"I was surprised that they would offer such a little amount of money to persuade me to hand my domain over to Microsoft. In response to this recent email, I sent one back to them describing how much work I have put into my business and that the domain was worth at least $10,000 (£6,000)," he said.

"They refused to give me anything more than $10 so I proceeded to ignore their most recent email. I didn't hear anything from them after their last email," he added.

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