Saturday March 6, 10:39 pm Eastern Time
Microsoft wins first China copyright cases
BEIJING, March 7 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp has won its first two Chinese court cases
against software pirates, the China Daily Business Weekly reported on Sunday.
A Chinese court ordered two domestic software companies to pay 800,000 yuan ($96,600)
in compensation to Microsoft for infringing its copyright, the newspaper said.
''The verdict in the case fully demonstrates China's efforts to strengthen protection of intellectual property rights,'' the
newspaper quoted Tom Robertson, attorney for Microsoft, as saying.
''The court verdict has greatly enhanced our confidence for China to wall off the pirate software in the industry,'' Robertson was
quoted as saying.
One of the companies, Beijing Seastar Science and Technology Development Co, was found to have installed Microsoft's
Windows 95 and Office 97 in its computer line without Microsoft's approval, the newspaper said.
The other, Beijing Min'an Investment Consulting Co Ltd had failed to obtain Microsoft's authorisation before installing
Softimage animation software.
It was the first time Microsoft had pursued software piracy in a Chinese court, the newspaper said.
The Beijing Number One Intermediate People's Court also ordered the two companies to publicly apologise in designated
newspapers and periodicals, the paper said.
The companies had failed to appeal by the court-ordered deadline, it said.
Yin Zhihe, executive chairman of the Beijing Software Industrial Association, welcomed the verdict, but said the current
situation on the domestic software market was ''still far from satisfactory.''
''More efforts were needed to wipe out the pirates,'' Yin was quoted as saying.
($1.0 = 8.28 yuan)
-- Beijing Newsroom (86) 10-6532-1921; Fax (86)
10-6532-4978
-- Email: beijing.newsroom@reuters.com
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