Microsoft And Pfizer Sue Alleged Spammers

Microsoft Corp. and Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company responsible for Viagra, last week filed lawsuits against alleged international spam rings that sell unauthorized "generic" versions of the medication.

The two companies filed 17 actions in total--including five by Microsoft relating specifically to spam--against a number of different defendants allegedly involved in the sale and advertising of the knock-off medications. Pfizer filed civil trademark infringement suits against CanadianPharmacy and E-Pharmacy Direct, and 10 domain name actions.

In its complaints, Microsoft alleged that some online pharmacies have sent hundreds of millions of e-mail messages to MSN Hotmail customers within the past year, in violation of the federal Can-Spam act as well as Washington state laws.

"As a result of defendants' activities, Microsoft's computer equipment and servers were required to process millions of improper spam e-mails, as well as 'bounce back' e-mails which had been sent by defendants to non-existent, outdated or incorrect e-mail addresses," state the lawsuits. "This significant number of e-mails has taken up substantial amount of Microsoft's finite computer space, threatens to delay and otherwise adversely affect MSN Hotmail subscribers in sending and receiving legitimate e-mail, and has resulted in and continues to result in significant costs to Microsoft."

Microsoft's court papers stated that the company was unable to determine the identities of the people who were allegedly behind the spam operation. Therefore, the complaints only reference the business names of the alleged spammers, including: CanadianPharmacy, E-Pharmacy Direct, Discount RX, Virtual RX, and EzyDrugStore.com.

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