Microsoft Loses South Korea Patent Ruling

mikesd81 writes "Ars Technica is carrying an article discussing Microsoft's denial for an appeal in a South Korean patent infringement case. The case focused on the automatic translation between English and Korean in Microsoft Office and was brought against the company in 2000. The Supreme Court of South Korea ruled that the patents are effective for technologies switching the input mode between Korean and English." From the article: "Technology firm P&IB, which sued Microsoft on behalf of Professor Lee, wants Microsoft to ante up to the tune of W70 billion ($75 million) in a separate lawsuit covering damages. 'Microsoft adapted our technologies to its Office package without dealing with Prof. Lee and it claimed the patents were not effective in the court,' P&IB President Kim Kil-hae told The Korea Times."

Comments

busted! from TFA, maybe can't sell office

[192939495969798999]

The article says that this could 'prevent Microsoft from selling Microsoft Office in South Korea'... that's how you stop a monopoly: block it from selling a monopoly product. Fines don't really do anything to Microsoft, but anywhere they are prevented from selling even just one piece of their software blanket is a huge blow to their long-term strategy.

Re:busted! from TFA, maybe can't sell office

[Hooya]

> Just imagine back in the days of the railroad barons - all right, nobody can ride trains anymore

well, that analogy is flawed. it implies that if(MS software == railroads && !MS software == automobiles) then { !MS software == (pollution & !efficiency) /* for one */ }

which, as most of know, isn't true. the analogy works only so far as to establish that by snubbing railroads (cutting off your nose...) we're managing quite well with automobiles. which means that we'll manage just fine without MS software.

i have a few korean co-workers and i see them using all kinds of korean software that they claim works better than their rivals (a korean antivirus/spamware removing software comes to mind, tho i don't know the name of it). so maybe, just maybe, they already have software that works better in their market and isn't made by MS. there are others that make software too you know.

i haven't had to use MS software for over 8 years. and i develop software for a living. horses and buggies? if you say so.

No more: 'let them eat cake'?

[postbigbang]

Oh those crazy patents. First Microsoft wants to indemnify those estranged SUSE users, but can't pay a poor Korean prof (are any profs paid well enough?) for his patent.

The double edged sword of patent protection will continue to bite all of us, but in this particular case, there might be a smidgen of justice. Perhaps there's a nice way to treble the damages....

The patent itself?

[Archibald Buttle]

It would be nice to have some details of the patent involved here. So far I've seen none.

The summary is also confusing. In one sentence it talks about automatic translation between English and Korean, the next it's about switching the input mode between Korean and English. These would seem to me to be two entirely different things.

As it stands if this really is concerned with switching input modes, then the folks at P&IB may wish to take a look at Apple's Mac OS X too. Since I'm married to a Korean, I've got my Mac at home set up to accept input in English and Hangul (the Korean alphabet). All I need to do to switch between the two is press Apple-Space. Mac OS X is smart enough to remember which alphabet you were typing in inside different windows too.

Re:The patent itself?

[ksoonson]

With this patent, if you type Korean in English input mode, it automatically converts those string into Korean and changes the input mode also to Korean.

For example, if you type 'eogksalsrnr' by mistake in English input mode, it automatically converts it into Korean.

Re:South Korea is isolating itself

[pangloss]

BadAnalogyGuy was so much more charming when he stuck to his forte: bad analogies. The political discourse is akin to McDonald's offering healthy menu items ;)

Anyway, you took an article about a dispute over a software patent and turned it into it's really no suprise at all that the ultra-nationalistic Koreans have found an American company at fault for anything and everything and a backdoor attack on the "American hegemony". Hmm. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

I for one welcome the Chaos

[bill_kress]

Perhaps it will help put the breaks on globalism and the patent/copyright feeding frenzy. It's obvious that we are going to have legal problems, to not resolve them up-front seems pretty crazy, but since greed got us where we are now, maybe it can get us out too.

Meh, I'm too optimistic.