I just came across this post and thought that it should be discussed.

>Microsoft is trying to stop anyone using the letters NT as part of their
>domain name (read article below).  Wonder what will be next?  Maybe we will
>be sued for saying the word Micro$oft in public :\
>
>>1) DOMAIN NAME CHANGE FROM NTSOFTDIST TO SUNBELT-SOFTWARE
>>
>>I have heads-up for you, espcially if you are involved in the NT
>>software area. Microsoft's lawyers have been active recently.
>>Any domain name, product name or company name starting with NT
>>is (or soon will be) challenged. Microsoft has a registered
>>trademark on those letters since '93 and if "fringe use" of
>>the letters is not addressed they will lose that copyright.
>>So any domain name starting with NT is a no-no. The have already
>>sent several cease-and-desist letters, two of our business
>>relations have received them.
>>
>>I called Microsoft's lawyers last week and they have confirmed this
>>is the case. If you want to call them: Seed & Barry 1-206-622-4900.
>>For Sunbelt this is not such a big problem, we simply change our
>>www.ntsoftdist.com to www.sunbelt-software.com. For companies that
>>have NT in their company name, the pain is more pronounced!
>>
>>We will have an alias for the next year, but please make a new
>>bookmark for us?  THANKS!
>>
>>http://www.sunbelt-software.com
>
>regards,
> Anthony
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------
>Anthony M. Goonetilleke        System Administrator
>PH:  +61 3 9 344 7934          Dept. Architect. Bld. & Planning
>FX:  +61 3 9 344 5532          Melb Univ.  Parkville, VIC 3052
>(W):agoon§arbld.unimelb.edu.au (P):motech§theoffice.net
>http://www.theoffice.net/motech/
>---------------------------------------------------------------

There are currently 22 domain names affected, and quite a few companies with
major WWW sites. If Microsoft wants people to change their name, what will
the response of Melbourne IT be to domain name changes that are forced?

FYI the domain names affected follow below (without the COM.AU)
nt, nt-tech, ntaa, ntacc, ntasign, ntb, ntc, ntcci, ntcs, nte, ntf, nth,
nti, ntis, ntp, ntranet, ntrek, nts, ntsolutions, ntt, nttyres, ntwoll

Andrew Heath