Microsoft has debuted a new round of worldwide anti-piracy legal actions against both companies and individuals involved in auctioning counterfeit software products produced by the Redmond Company via online auctioning websites. Microsoft revealed that the largest number of lawsuits - 15, have been filed in the United States, with another 10 each in Germany and in the Netherlands and five each in France and the United Kingdom. Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Korea and Poland are stages for additional Microsoft lawsuits.

"This is a worldwide enforcement against sellers of counterfeit software on online auction sites," said Matt Lundy, a senior attorney at Microsoft. "We're finding more and more that auction sites are becoming a popular way for counterfeiters to distribute counterfeit software to consumers."

Spreading on four continents, North and South America, Europe and Asia, the Microsoft lawsuits aim to bring to justice sellers of illegal copies of Windows, Office, Excel and Publisher. "Piracy is a huge problem worldwide," Lundy said. "The goal of our enforcement is to target enterprises that traffic counterfeit software."

Microsoft alleges that eBay and additional auctioning websites have suffered some form of abuse and misuse in order for counterfeit software to be sold via their services. The Redmond Company and eBay revealed that some 50,000 software auctions per year infringe on Microsoft's copyrights. The software giant estimates that the chances of acquiring counterfeit software via eBay is more than 50% following the testing of some 115 products out of which more than half were illicit copies.