A recently concluded Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) legal case filed by the local unit of Microsoft was the first of its kind to go all the way to Sri Lanka's Supreme Court, according to the company's Corporate Attorney Jonathan Selvasegaram.
The landmark case, filed against Unity Plaza computer dealer Media Centre (since renamed Shad's Digital), was for "infringing on Microsoft's copyright in Windows XP Professional and Office Enterprise 2007 by pre-installing unlicensed Microsoft software into new computers sold to customers. There was no Certificate of Authenticity affixed on the computer, no original DVD disks and no manuals", according to a statement.
Further, the case's outcome included Media Centre having "agreed to sign an express undertaking affirming that they, amongst others, will no longer sell or distribute any computers containing pirated or unlicenced Microsoft software in the future".
Mr. Selvasegaram also revealed that there was one more case currently pending but he anticipated "amicable settlement" in this regard. And that "Microsoft's intention is to protect consumers and honest partners first and foremost... Honest resellers and computer dealers cannot compete with resellers and vendors that sell counterfeit software. If any distributor or reseller offers for sale counterfeit software, we will do whatever we can under the law to pursue the infringers". |
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