I can confirm this behavior on KDE 3.5.6. I'm not sure if this is a bug or a feature though.
Could you link your upstream report to this bug? -- focus-follow-mouse works poorly with popups https://launchpad.net/bugs/39606 -- kubuntu-bugs mailing list kubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/kubuntu-bugs