Software giant Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) on Tuesday said it filed 21 lawsuits in federal courts of 14 states against sellers of pirated copies of its software, including some repeated offenders, in a bid to protect its customers and partners from the risks of pirated and counterfeit software. The Redmond, Washington-based firm noted that according to a study, software piracy has resulted in economic losses of over $8 billion in U.S. alone.
The software firm noted that of the firms named in the suits, many were repeated offenders having continued with their business practices illegitimately, despite settling earlier lawsuits with Microsoft. The company alleged that these firms misled customers by repeatedly distributing unlicensed copies of Microsoft software, pre-installed on the PCs that they sold.
Citing the fifth annual global PC software piracy study released in May by the Business Software Alliance, Microsoft stated that over one-third of PCs sold globally are unlicensed or contain pirated or counterfeit software. In 2007, the piracy rate in the U.S. reached 20%, a one-point decrease from 2006, resulting in economic losses increasing to over $8 billion from $7.2 billion in the prior year.
MSFT closed Monday's regular trading at $27.71, up $0.22, or 0.80%, on a volume of 66.79 million shares.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.