Extending Office 365 subscription on new PC

Rohn,  I agree with most of your post.  However, the Office 365 Personal licence is limited to 5 computers belonging to the the owner of the licence.  That would not include the OPs Mother.  

I agree entirely with Microsoft Support's grasp on the law and what you can do etc.  They will always say no to be on the safe side.  My point as to the law is correctly stated but it arguable whether it applies in the  instant case one way or the other.  I know/knew Microsoft would back me up whether I was right or wrong. 

Here is a bit of history for you.  In 2012 the  European Court of justice ruled that users can transfer licences.  That is why in 2013 Microsoft came up with the idea of associating the licence with the Microsoft Account of the purchaser so that they could keep control and prevent people from transferring licences.  The ruling was confirmed in 2016.

This is the easy read for the below cases:  Can you resell software licenses? The latest legal position in 2016

Ranks and Vasilevics (Judgment) [2016] EUECJ C-166/15 (12 October 2016)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Intellectual property — Copyright and related rights — Directive 91/250/EEC — Article 4(a) and (c) — Article 5(1) and (2) — Directive 2009/24/EC — Article 4(1) and (2) — Article 5(1) and (2) — Legal protection of computer programs — Resale of ‘used’ licensed copies of computer programs on non-original material media — Exhaustion of the distribution right — Exclusive right of reproduction)

The court ruled that:

- ‘although the initial acquirer of a copy of a computer program accompanied by an unlimited user licence is entitled to resell that copy and his licence to a new acquirer, he may not, however, in the case where the original material medium of the copy

that was initially delivered to him has been damaged, destroyed or lost, provide his back-up copy of that program to that new acquirer without the authorisation of the rightholder.’

UsedSoft (Legal protection of computer programs) [2012] EUECJ C-128/11 (03 July 2012)

Usedsoft GmbH v Oracle International Corpn 03 Jul 2012 [2013 Bus LR 911, ECJ]

Sorry if I got your gender wrong.

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Frankly I place essentially 0 value on "legal" advice from MS Support.    Of course they say that. That is what they (MS) want you to believe. Essentially all of the other answers I've seen from MS Support about even simple MS Office License Term questions has been wrong! Don't forget, MS Support are minimum wage "slaves" in 3rd world phone support centers. In my experience their knowledge is very limited!

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The simple reality is that an Office 365 Personal subscription is not limited to 1 device. It allows you to actually install on up to 5 computers at the same time.  I have not seen any indication that there is anything special about this license that "comes with" the computer. In other words, to the best of my knowledge it is just a "normal" 365 Personal license that is activated in a specific way. It is not like the old "OEM" or "PKC" license types that were explicitly tied to the original hardware they were activated on by specific license terms (you can still see them in MS License Terms document). There is no indication that it is like the old "NFR" (Not for Resale) license types that were given away for free, as prizes, where the license explicitly specified that it could not be sold.

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RonB's point about contract law seems valid to my layman's recall of (long ago high school) contract law. BUT, is point he made explicitly made in the sales contract to you?  Does anything provided by builder say explicitly who has to activate the Office license? Or, does Office just "come with" the computer, as a "feature", like a SSD or DVD player or an upgraded video card? I don't know the answers to these questions. But I'm willing to bet there is nothing there.

Michelle, thank you for the update and I apologise with reservation post the inappropriate remark, which I will delete.  Cheers

Thanks RonBarker for actually being helpful. I have just spoken to Microsoft. 

Basically you are correct. The offer is for the device purchased only. So if it was my device I could utilise the 1 year. However i couldnt use it on any other device (which you get if you purchase it normally). Personally i dont think i have TARFU as it was put. I am simply unable to do what i want because the way it is sold and activated is completely unexplained. I also think it is mis-sold as you are not getting the same as you would if you purchased separately. However thats another issue. 

Theres obviously no point in me wasting anymore of my time on this and thanks to those who have been helpful rather than just told me i had messed up. Hopefully this thread will help

another person in my position!

I don't think that Michelle is a male.  I do not think that a 1 year subscription is lawfully transferable  it is an Offer and under contact law there has to be an offer an acceptance and consideration.  That would part consist of purchasing the computer including the 1 year free trial of Office 365 worth in English £79 (I think).