Microsoft sued over alleged patent violations

A small Chinese hi-tech firm is suing Microsoft for alleged intellectual property rights violations in its latest Windows Vista operating system, the second lawsuit launched in China this year against the US software giant for alleged patent violations.

China E-Commerce Info-Tech Co Ltd (CECIT), based in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, accused Microsoft of using its RSS (Really Simple Syndication)-related technology in Vista without licensing agreements.

"We applied for the invention patent of our self-developed method to use the RSS service in 2005 and received patent certificate (No ZL 2005 1 0022721.3) from the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) last December," said Wang Jianbo, chairman of CECIT.