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    There is competition between applications. They can’t “register” for the same hotkey. The X server doesn’t catch anything: it generates the events. The “Desktop” doesn’t exist in X11 terms: it is just a bunch of applications, some of them are X clients. With a few X server internal exceptions (e.g. terminate the X server) key events are delivered to the program that has keyboard focus unless there is a passive keyboard grab on that key!—And the most important part: if a prog wants to know about a key the “Desktop apps” should not “catch” that event, but let the prog “catch” it! Commented Nov 16, 2014 at 14:55
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    Your answer is true for keys that are used by an application when it has the focus, but not for keys grabbed by an application (which then receives it regardless of the focus). Commented Nov 16, 2014 at 23:17