German company accuses tech giant of copying its best-selling typeface product in new version of Windows without permission, writes Derek Scally, in Berlin

Microsoft's new version of its Windows operating system is not even out of the box and the first complaints are already in.

German typography company Linotype has accused the American software giant of plagiarising its best-selling typeface in Windows Vista, due to be released in July.

Vista will replace Tahoma, its existing system typeface, with Segoe UI (pronounced "see-go"), which Linotype says is a rip-off of its best-selling Frutiger typeface.

"Typeface experts around the world are all agreed that Segoe is a little too similar to our famous Frutiger to be a coincidence," said Bruno Steinert, chief executive of Linotype.

"It isn't like someone can reinvent the alphabet - the letter 'a' as we know it has a prototype form - but there are variations and with Frutiger these variations are very special, with completely new forms."

Apart from some small differences, such as in the number "1" or the letter "j", he says Segoe UI is identical to Frutiger, developed in 1970 by typeface designer Adrian Frutiger for use in Charles de Gaulle Airport.

A decade ago, a team from Linotype modernised the font, creating "Frutiger Next", which the company licenses as a "boutique typeface".

Microsoft says Segoe UI was designed by its typography division over two years to be easy to scan and easy to read on computer screens.

"We wanted a more humanistic, friendly font that would seem less 'computer-y' than Tahoma," wrote Jensen Harris, a Microsoft employee who writes a blog about the company's Office software.

It's not the first time that the software giant from Redmond has crossed Linotype, a subsidiary of printing press manufacturer Heidelberger Druckmaschinen.

Microsoft caused a scandal when it introduced Arial, what Steinert calls a "very poor copy" of its Helvetica typeface, originally developed in 1957 for use in Zürich Airport.

Then Microsoft did it again with Book Antiqua, suspiciously similar to Linotype's Palatino typeface.

Although all this costs Linotype money in lost licence fees, the company doesn't risk legal action because it has little chance of winning in court.

In Europe, typefaces enjoy a 10-year period of protection that can be extended to a maximum of 25 years.

After that, it's a free for all, with other companies free to design clones of the original.

But now Microsoft has applied to protect the Segoe UI font database at the EU Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM), something that Steinert says would give it higher legal protection than Frutiger.

"You have to prove that what you have submitted is new and innovative, but that cannot be the case when it looks damn similar to what we have had for 40 years," he said.

"What they have done is not new, it is plagiarism. It's not nice or friendly to do that, but there is nothing that we can do against it," he said.

"However, if registration happens, Microsoft could turn up one day and prevent us from distributing Frutiger."

Linotype has lodged an objection to the registration that won't affect the release of Windows Vista, but that might stop Microsoft copyrighting what Linotype thinks is its property and allow others to copy the Segoe UI typeface. Ingo Preuss of the German website Typeforum says that many designers are furious that Microsoft "feels the need to steal or plagiarise typefaces".

"Arial was the test balloon. Now the same principle is being followed with Segoe. It is embarrassing and shameful," he said.

Steinert says that he is resigned to Microsoft's business practices, but points out that it's not a given in the computer industry, with Apple Computer remaining one of his company's best customers.

"Frutiger is a very popular typeface for banks and other companies. It's a cash cow for us and income will suffer considerably because no one will have to buy it if they are able to get it for free," he says. We offered Microsoft a licence that wasn't worth a lot of money, but it was too expensive for them.

"You'd think that Bill Gates, the world's richest man, could afford a licence, but I suppose you become the richest man with tough contracts and by bamboozling others."

A Microsoft spokesman was not available for comment.