The Tokyo District Court on Tuesday ordered Justsystem Corp. to discontinue producing and selling its Ichitaro word-processing and Hanako graphics software because they have a function that infringes on a Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. patent.
Presiding Judge Makiko Takabe also ordered Justsystem to scrap the products. But she did not declare the provisional execution of the rulings as Matsushita requested in its lawsuit.
Justsystem plans to appeal the ruling, company officials said. The company can continue selling the products until a higher court decision is made.
The patent involves Matsushita's Help Mode function, which gives on-screen instructions. About 8 million units of Ichitaro software that have the function have already been shipped.
Matsushita applied for a patent on the function in 1989. It received one in 1998.
Noting that both Ichitaro and Hanako have components that constitute Matsushita's patent, Takabe ruled against Justsystem's claim that it has not violated the patent.