Is Microsoft Behind Antitrust Claims Against Pretty Much Everyone Else Now?

Politics

from the it's-all-politics dept

While some feel that the long antitrust fight against Microsoft ended up having little impact, there does appear to be some evidence that Microsoft recognizes what a pain dealing with antitrust accusations are. That seems to be the most reasonable explanation for why Microsoft seems to be showing up behind the scenes in recent antitrust activity against both Google and IBM. With Google, a few small companies with highly dubious claims have stepped up with antitrust claims against Google, but of course, there’s a secret Microsoft connection in that these tiny companies with monetary disputes that are a pittance, seem to have secured the help of some super high-powered lawyers who have a long history of working with Microsoft. Hmm…

And then, last week, the news came out that the EU was investigating IBM for supposed antitrust violations — and, IBM is now claiming that the small companies involved in the complaints are “proxies of Microsoft.” Yes, it looks like rather than actually being about protecting consumers, antitrust activity has now become about saddling competitors with a huge distracting fight.

Of course, IBM’s activity is a bit shady here as well. Part of the issue was that they were trying to block these companies that make software emulators of IBM hardware. IBM claims that such emulators “pirate IBM’s intellectual property.” That seems pretty silly. An emulator shouldn’t be seen as infringing. Of course, if IBM is found to be violating antitrust behavior, then it may be its own fault here as well: intellectual property is, inherently, about using monopoly power. But, if you rely on one form of monopoly power, you shouldn’t be surprised when another form comes back to bite you.

Filed Under: antitrust, competition, politics
Companies: google, ibm, microsoft