Microsoft Loses Korean Patent Lawsuit, May Be Forced To Ban OfficeMicrosoft Loses Korean Patent Lawsuit, May Be Forced To Ban Office

A decision last week by South Korea's Supreme Court may force Microsoft to temporarily suspend sales of its Office productivity suite in the Asian country.

For its part, Microsoft said it would not have to halt Office sales.

In a ruling Friday, the court said Microsoft's suite includes technologies that infringe on patents held by P&IB, a Korean intellectual property holder. The patents, originally granted to a professor at Hankuk Aviation University in 1997 and 1998, then sold to P&IB, cover techniques and technologies for automatically switching between English and Korean while entering data or text.

"Microsoft adapted our technologies to its Office package and claimed the patents were not effective,'' P&IB president Kim Kil-hae told the English-language Korea Times. "But the Supreme Court decided in favor of us on the patents issue. As a result, we will be able to win at the pending damages suit in the Seoul High Court."

P&IB seeks 70 billion won ($75.1 million) in compensation, and has asked Korean courts to force Microsoft to stop selling Office until it removes the language-switching technologies.

"The courts in Korea have not yet considered all of our strong challenges to the validity of the patent, and our defense of non-infringement is still being considered in a separate proceeding," said a Microsoft spokesman Monday. "We do not currently anticipate any interruption to our ability to continue offering Microsoft Office in Korea."

Microsoft has had a rocky history with Korean courts. A year ago, the Korean Fair Trade Commission ruled that Microsoft had to create and sell a version of Windows XP that omitted the operating system's bundled media player and instant messenger. Microsoft is still appealing that decision.

At one point during the hubbub, Microsoft said it would withdraw from the Korean market rather than comply with the XP ruling. But it quickly retracted the ultimatum.

Microsoft's U.S. office wasn't immediately available for comment.

[Updated, Nov. 27, 4 p.m. Added reference to Microsoft saying it will not have to halt Office sales; added quote from Microsoft spokesman.]