Microsoft Loses Appeal on Illegal Windows XP Fonts [Bloomberg]

A Beijing court has denied Microsoft’s appeal and ruled that the company used Chinese character fonts belonging to Zhongyi Electronic without authorization in several of its products.

Windows 98, 2000, 2003 and XP versions sold in China and in several other markets included Zhongyi’s set of fonts, the court said.

“We respect the court’s decision but continue to believe our fonts licensing agreement with Zhongyi should have granted us perpetual rights to the fonts at issue,” Microsoft said in a statement according to Bloomberg.

Even though the court has ruled against Microsoft, the Redmond-based software firm says there’s no issue with the software products included in the lawsuit because they’re no longer up for grabs.

“This ruling will not impact Microsoft customers in China as it pertains to older versions of Microsoft products that are no longer available for purchase,” the company explained.