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IP: *.nas1.honolulu1.hi.us.da.qwest.net
14.07.04, 06:58
Japan hits Microsoft with antitrust warning
July 13, 2004,
Microsoft on Tuesday received a warning from Japan's antitrust regulators
about unfair business practices, but the decision did not carry the heavy
fines the software giant was given in Europe.
Japan's Fair Trade Commission said Microsoft should scrap a provision in its
licensing contracts with PC makers that prevents them from filing patent
infringement suits if they find Microsoft's Windows software contains
features similar to their own technology.
"There is a high probability that the provision will discourage PC makers
from developing their own technology," said Toshihiro Hara, director of the
First Special Investigation division at Japan's Fair Trade Commission.
A Microsoft official said the company was implementing a plan to drop the
provision in new contracts worldwide, but it was not known whether that would
be enough to satisfy the trade watchdog, which raided the offices of
Microsoft's Japan unit in February.
The ruling is a slap on the wrist compared with the record fine from European
regulators and a string of class-action lawsuits in the United States saying
Microsoft used its monopoly in the PC operating systems market to overcharge
customers for software.
Microsoft has been working to put antitrust claims behind it, having settled
class-action suits in 12 states and the District of Columbia during the past
two years for a total of more than $1.5 billion.
European regulators hit Microsoft with a record fine of more than $600
million in March for violating antitrust law and ordered it to strip media
software from its operating system.
Microsoft has appealed the ruling.
Last month, a U.S. appeals court upheld the government's 2001 antitrust
settlement with Microsoft and rejected appeals for tougher remedies, handing
a major victory to the world's largest software maker.
The state of Massachusetts and two high-tech industry groups had argued the
court should force Microsoft to redesign Windows and stop tying Internet
Explorer and other products directly into the operating system, a practice
known as "commingling."
