A Chinese court has found Microsoft Corp infringed a Chinese company’s intellectual property rights by including certain fonts in its operating systems.
Beijing’s No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court found Microsoft had exceeded the scope of a previous agreement to use and sell fonts owned by Zhongyi Electronic Ltd (中易中標電子信息公司), Dow Jones Newswires reported, citing a judgment dated Monday.
SENSITIVE TIME
The decision came during US President Barack Obama’s visit to China and at a sensitive time in the trade relationship between the two countries. The US has been pressing China for tougher intellectual property law enforcement.
Microsoft installed and used the fonts in eight of its operating systems without express permission from Zhongyi, the court said, ordering Microsoft to stop producing and selling those operating systems in China.
Microsoft officials were not immediately available for comment.
The case, which was filed in April 2007, apparently does not affect Microsoft’s latest operating systems, Vista and Windows 7, which went on sale last month.
The court rejected Zhongyi’s claim that Microsoft’s use of Zhengma software, which enables computer users to type Chinese characters using Western keyboards, also violated its intellectual property rights.
PAUL ALLEN
In related news, billionaire Paul Allen, who founded US software giant Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975, has been diagnosed with cancer, technology blogs reported on Monday.
Allen, 56, has non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, CNET News and other technology news sites said, quoting a letter from Allen’s sister, Jody Allen.
“He received the diagnosis early this month and has begun chemotherapy,” Jody Allen said in the letter to employees of her brother’s company, Vulcan Inc.
“Doctors say he has diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, a relatively common form of lymphoma,” Jody Allen said.
She said her brother survived another bout with cancer 25 years ago.
Paul Allen left Microsoft in 1983 and is the founder and chairman of Vulcan Inc and the chairman of Charter Communications.
He owns the National Football League team the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association and is a part owner of the Major League Soccer team the Seattle Sounders.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
‘OF COURSE A COUNTRY’: The president outlined that Taiwan has all the necessary features of a nation, including citizens, land, government and sovereignty President William Lai (賴清德) discussed the meaning of “nation” during a speech in New Taipei City last night, emphasizing that Taiwan is a country as he condemned China’s misinterpretation of UN Resolution 2758. The speech was the first in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. It is the responsibility of Taiwanese citizens to stand united to defend their national sovereignty, democracy, liberty, way of life and the future of the next generation, Lai said. This is the most important legacy the people of this era could pass on to future generations, he said. Lai went on to discuss
OBJECTS AT SEA: Satellites with synthetic-aperture radar could aid in the detection of small Chinese boats attempting to illegally enter Taiwan, the space agency head said Taiwan aims to send the nation’s first low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2027, while the first Formosat-8 and Formosat-9 spacecraft are to be launched in October and 2028 respectively, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council laid out its space development plan in a report reviewed by members of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee. Six LEO satellites would be produced in the initial phase, with the first one, the B5G-1A, scheduled to be launched in 2027, the council said in the report. Regarding the second satellite, the B5G-1B, the government plans to work with private contractors
MISSION: The Indo-Pacific region is ‘the priority theater,’ where the task of deterrence extends across the entire region, including Taiwan, the US Pacific Fleet commander said The US Navy’s “mission of deterrence” in the Indo-Pacific theater applies to Taiwan, Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Stephen Koehler told the South China Sea Conference on Tuesday. The conference, organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), is an international platform for senior officials and experts from countries with security interests in the region. “The Pacific Fleet’s mission is to deter aggression across the Western Pacific, together with our allies and partners, and to prevail in combat if necessary, Koehler said in the event’s keynote speech. “That mission of deterrence applies regionwide — including the South China Sea and Taiwan,” he
RSS