RSSMicrosoft Loses S. Korea Patent Case
By Ed Oswald | Published November 27, 2006, 1:20 PM
South Korea is again proving to be a thorn in Microsoft's side, as the company over the weekend lost a patent battle in the country concerning its Office software. The decision could force the Redmond company to halt sales of the popular productivity suite in South Korea.
The country's supreme court rejected attempts by Microsoft to have a patent surrounding technology to automatically switch input modes between Korea and English thrown out. The patent had been awarded to Lee Keung-Hae, a Hankuk Aviation University professor, in 1997.
Lee first filed suit against Microsoft in 2000, however awarding of damages and the appeals process were held up while the company challenged the patent. With the judgement in Lee's favor, the case would now be able to proceed.
Lawyers representing Lee are asking for copies of Office software with the technology to be pulled from store shelves, and feel that the decision strengthens their fight to win monetary damages, which they estimate at 70 billion won ($75.11 million USD).
Microsoft still remains adamant it will prevail in the end, even filing a new lawsuit with further evidence of so-called "prior art," a common defense in patent infringement cases.
Maybe they'd have sold more by naming it "Rindows" :)
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"Rindows"
Alright Scooby
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Why they issue patent without a products? I mean, once a technology patent has been issue, they should have X amount of time to produce a product or phototype. If they can't do, it should be a public patent.
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That's a point worth considering.
How long would a bunch of leeches like NTP (only lawyers and no engineers!) last if that was the case?
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought OpenOffice dominated South Korea's desktops.
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Even if that were true, what's wrong with getting some money out of MS while they're at it, right???
In fact, you know what, I came up with the name Microsoft Excel, I can't prove it, but I'm damn sure going to win some money for it, because they can't prove I didn't come up with it first.
We see this more and more now, people are just greedy and think they can say whatever they want in a lawsuit, no matter how ridiculous and blatantly outrageous and suck some money out of MS.
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