Microsoft claims UK retailer sold counterfeit Windows recovery CDs
- Wednesday, 04 January 2012 07:53
Microsoft today filed a legal complaint against Comet, a UK retailer which the company alleges sold 94,000 sets of Windows Vista and Windows XP recovery CDs without Microsoft's blessing. While Microsoft called the CDs counterfeits, Comet says it was acting in good faith, supplying customers with recovery discs when Microsoft would not.
Microsoft noted that the recovery CDs were sold to customers who had purchased Windows-loaded PCs and laptops. Comet operates 248 stores as well as an online shopping site.
“As detailed in the complaint filed today, Comet produced and sold thousands of counterfeit Windows CDs to unsuspecting customers in the United Kingdom,” Microsoft associate general counsel David Finn said in a statement posted on Microsoft's website. “Comet’s actions were unfair to customers. We expect better from retailers of Microsoft products—and our customers deserve better, too.”
Comet responded with a statement of its own, saying it believes what it did was legal. "Comet has sought and received legal advice from leading counsel to support its view that the production of recovery discs did not infringe Microsoft’s intellectual property," the company said. "Comet firmly believes that it acted in the very best interests of its customers. It believes its customers had been adversely affected by the decision to stop supplying recovery discs with each new Microsoft Operating System based computer. Accordingly Comet is satisfied that it has a good defence to the claim and will defend its position vigorously."
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