Ichitaro

Infobox Software
name = Ichitaro


caption =
developer = Justsystems
latest_release_version = Ichitaro 2008
latest_release_date = 9th Feburuary 2008
operating_system = Microsoft Windows, Linux
genre = Word processor
license = Proprietary
website = [http://www.ichitaro.com/ ichitaro.com]

nihongo|Ichitaro|一太郎|ichitarō is a Japanese word processor produced by Justsystems, a Japanese software company. Ichitaro occupies the second share in Japanese word-processing software, behind Microsoft Word. It is one of the main products of the company. Its proprietary file extension is ".JTD". ATOK, an IME developed by Justsystems, is bundled with Ichitaro.

History

The company developed the Japanese word processor JS-WORD for the PC-100 in 1983. In the following year, jX-WORD for the IBM JX was released and in the following year, jX-WORD Taro was released for PC-9801. The same year, Ichitaro was released as its definite successor.

In the DOS era, Ichitaro had a considerable market share along with other rivals such as Matsu by Kanri Kougaku Kenkyujyo. However, as Windows became dominant, the market was largely taken over by Microsoft Word. ["The Yomiuri Shimbun", pp.9 Tokyo morning edition, April 8, 1998.] Some versions of Ichitaro were ported to the Macintosh and to OS/2. In May 2003, the release of a Linux version was announced.

Compact versions, "Ichitaro dash" and "Ichitaro lite" are produced for laptop PCs. As office suite, "Just home" is also available. "Ichitaro smile" is targeted at elementary school students and "Ichitaro jump" at middle and high school students.

On February 1, 2005, sales and production of the software were frozen pending an appeal by the company against a ruling of the Tokyo District Court which states that there is a breach of a patent owned by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

However, on September 30, 2005, Intellectual Property High Court of Japan, which was newly formed in April 2005, has granted Justsystems’ appeal. Because this judgement became a final decision in October 2005, the original decision sentenced by the Tokyo District Court was overturned.

References

See also

*Matsu (software)
*ATOK
*Hangul

External links

* [http://www.ichitaro.com/ Ichitaro website]
* [http://www.ip.courts.go.jp/eng/documents/pdf/g_panel/10040_eng.pdf 2005 (Ne) 10040 Appeal Case of Seeking Injunction against Patent Infringement] - the Intellectual Property High Court of Japan