Police were called after a Chinese IT executive threw his shoe at a Microsoft logo displayed at the software giant's China headquarters. The incident followed a legal dispute between Microsoft and a Chinese company.

?A Microsoft employee grabbed Zhou by the leg. [The photo is provided by Shimu company]

The chief designer of Chinese software company Shimu, Zhou Jingzhi, went to Microsoft headquarters in the Chaoyang district of Beijing on August 24 to verify that Microsoft had complied with an arbitration ruling to repay a technical support fee.

After being kept waiting for more than an hour and refused a request to meet Chairman and CEO of Microsoft Greater China Region, Simon Leung, Zhou became angry and threw his shoes and a copy of the arbitration ruling at the Microsoft company logo. A Microsoft employee grabbed Zhou by the leg and held on to him until police arrived.

The background to the disturbance is a legal dispute involving a contract worth more than 10 million yuan (US$1.47 million).

Shimu signed a memorandum of understanding with Microsoft in 2005. According to the agreement, the two companies were to cooperate on building marketing systems for third parties. Microsoft was responsible for providing the information management system and Shimu was to provide the program code. As part of the deal Shimu also agreed to buy software products and technical services from Microsoft.

However, Shimu complained that it received no technical support from Microsoft despite purchasing software worth 12 million yuan (US$1.76 million) and paying a 3.6 million yuan (US$530,000) technical service fee.

Shimu submitted the dispute to arbitration and on July 29 this year the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission ruled that Microsoft was at fault. Microsoft was told to return the technical service fee to Shimu and pay legal costs of 500,000 yuan (US$73,500).

But Microsoft refused to implement the ruling until Shimu threatened to apply for a compulsory execution of the ruling. Microsoft eventually invited Shimu representatives to visit its headquarters where they would be given evidence that payment had been made.

After the incident Zhou told www.sina.com that Microsoft had caused great losses for his company. He said Shimu was resolute in safeguarding its lawful rights and interests and that Microsoft should reflect upon its behavior.

Microsoft said that it had complied with the ruling and condemned Zhou's behavior at its headquarters.