So Microsoft does keep an eye out for Apple. And perhaps even an ear out for Apple's lawyers.
Recently, Microsoft COO Kevin Turner claimed that Apple's legal vultures had called Redmond, aggrieved at alleged inaccuracies in Microsoft's Laptop Hunters campaign.
He described the call as being better than an evening with Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston. Well, perhaps not quite. But he certainly used phrases like "greatest single phone call," as if only multiple phone calls from Cupertino would have made him more excited.
However, according to AdAge Microsoft has actually made changes to one of the Laptop Hunter ads.
It's the one featuring Lauren, the aspiring law student, and her mom, who claimed that Lauren usually gets what she wants.
In the original version of the ad, Lauren, who wants to spend a maximum of $1,700 on her computing dreams, offered this competing statement: "This Mac is $2,000, and that's before adding anything."
Her mom, Sue, asks her why she would pay twice the price. To which Lauren gives her the steely look of a future prosecutor and says: "I wouldn't."
This loving familial exchange has now been edited out. The old version has been removed from YouTube and replaced with a new version, in which Lauren merely says: "It seems like you're paying a lot for the brand."
A Microsoft representative told AdAge: "We slightly adjusted the ads to reflect the updated pricing of the Mac laptop shown in the TV advertisement. This does not change the focus of the campaign, which is to showcase the value and choice of the PC."
In a week in which Microsoft admitted that sales of PCs are sluggish, might it be possible that Apple's lawyers will be taking advantage of happy hour on Friday night?
With a sip of the finest chardonnay, of course.