Microsoft and Pfizer join forces to slam spam
Two giants unite in the courtroom
Microsoft and Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, have joined forces in an effort to crack down on drug-related spam.
The two companies have filed 17 parallel lawsuits against two 'international pharmacy spam rings' accused of selling illegal versions of Pfizer's erectile dysfunction drug Viagra via spam.
While Pfizer has filed civil actions against two websites - CanadianPharmacy and E-Pharmacy Direct - that it accuses of promoting and selling potentially dangerous drugs that have not been approved by regulators, Microsoft has filed civil actions against the spammers advertising for those websites.
In addition, Pfizer has filed ten further domain name actions and Microsoft has filed three suits against spammers advertising other online pharmacies.
Brad Smith, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Microsoft described the double-pronged attack by Pfizer and Microsoft as a 'wake-up call to those who abuse the Internet for illegal purposes'. He said: 'Leading businesses are teaming up, pooling resources and sharing investigative information to stop this illegal activity at the source.'
Microsoft's Q&A about the joint legal action can be found here.
14 February 2005
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