Microsoft ordered to stopping selling OS

Microsoft must stop selling products that infringe on the copyrights of a Beijing software company, the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People’s Court ruled on Monday.

In the ruling issued by the court, Microsoft was ordered to stop sales of products that used Chinese character fonts designed by Zhongyi Electronic Ltd.

The products targeted were Chinese versions of the Microsoft operating systems Windows 98, 2000, 2003 and Windows XP.

Microsoft didn’t answer calls from METRO yesterday. According to the Beijing Morning Post, Microsoft said they would appeal.

A statement on the Zhongyi Electronic Ltd website said that Microsoft signed contracts to use Chinese fonts and an input method for the Windows 95 system in 1994.

"Microsoft only paid to use our software for its Windows 95 system," Lan Fei, press officer of Zhongyi Electronic Ltd, told METRO yesterday.

The company claimed in its online statement that Microsoft used their software in other products, including Windows 98, 2000, 2003 as well as Windows XP without permission or payment.

Lan said this was not the first time the two companies had met in court.

Zhongyi Electronic Ltd sued Microsoft at the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People’s Court on Apr 23, 2007 after finding that Microsoft applied their Chinese fonts and input method in their Windows 98 system without permission.

Microsoft requested the patent reexamination board of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) to announce the patent of the Chinese input method invalid, but was rejected.

Microsoft then sued SIPO at the Beijing No1 Intermediate People’s Court and was rejected once again.

The statement on Zhongyi’s website said the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People’s Court had been in session for this case on Jan 15, Feb 26 and May 29 last year, but received a final decision this Monday.

Sogou Information Service Company, which is affiliated with web portal Sohu.com, is the designer of a widely used Chinese input method.

It appealed to the Beijing No 2 Intermediate People’s Court recently with claims that the Chinese instant messaging service company Tencent was holding a monopoly control.

The court has not yet reached a verdict.