Microsoft Threatened With Fines By EU Again

ukhackster writes "The EC is threatening Microsoft with yet more fines. This time, it's over the interoperability protocols that Microsoft has been ordered to open up to its rivals. The EC has examined 1,500 pages of information about the protocols, and concluded that they 'lack significant innovation'. This is pretty damning for both Microsoft and the patent system, as it has been awarded 36 patents covering this technology and has another 37 pending. Could this encourage someone like the EFF to start pushing to get these patents overturned? The EU has a FAQ about this issue, containing additional details on the subject.

Comments

Re:Patents haven't been about innovation for years

[bigtomrodney]

This shows a lot of promise for Open Source Developers. When I first read this I feared the protocols might be made available at prohibitive costs to Open Source and hobbiest developers.-

Microsoft has already documented Vista and Longhorn server-related protocols and priced them. But again the European Commission has managed to surprise me with their forward thinking :-

What is the situation as regards open source? The Commission has previously stated that it is committed to ensuring that the open source community has access to the non-innovative protocols if the Court of First Instance rules in its favour in case T-201/04 (the action brought by Microsoft against the 2004 Decision). Which we are told "lack significant innovation". I'm not sure whether I'm happy for the OSS developers or to laugh and rehash all of the jokes about Microsoft rehashing everyone else's ideas. Hopefully we do see some of those Patents overturned too.

Don't conflate interface with implementation

[Todd Knarr]

That's Microsoft's problem, confusing the interface specification with the source code implementing the interface. The EU is commenting on the interface, not the implementation. When they say the interface specification contains no protectable innovation, that doesn't mean that Microsoft's particular implementation of that specification doesn't contain any innovation but simply that that innovation isn't going to be present in the mere API spec.

Re:Or...

[gstoddart]

This is the EU desperately looking for some reason, any reason, to levy a hefty fine, not so much for the revenue, but to show how "tough" they are. This is a joke. Fining someone because you don't think their patents are innovative? The EU is really scraping the bottom of the barrel on this one.

I would disagree.

• The EU found Microsoft guilty of using their near-monopoly in an anti-competitive way. ie, they lost an antitrust suit.
• In order to correct Microsoft's practices, the EU said MS had to provide information on protocols to allow people to interoperate with MS products.
• MS produced 1500 pages and a pricing scheme to get access to the information. MS also agreed, in principal, that the cost to get it should correspond to the amount of 'innovativeness' in the stuff they're charging to see.
• Upon review, the EU has concluded that the stuff MS is trying to charge so much for access doesn't really represent much in the way of innovation. Nada. They've taken what other people were doing, and fiddled with it so it wasn't interoperable.

Now, the EU is saying that, according to the terms MS agreed to about how to value the stuff based on the amount of innovativeness in it, MS hasn't really done anything innovative. And, furthermore, how dare they try to charge so much damned money for something which, really, isn't all that different from the stuff that already existed. They're being caught in their embrace, extend, then break model of 'competition'.

This is not the EU 'scraping the bottom of the barrel', this is about trying to enforce a previous judgement against MS -- one which they continually try to evade both the letter and spirit of: that of allowing for more interoperability between MS products and anyone else.

They might take the step of invalidating the patents held by Microsoft. Which would say "hey, wait a minute, those magic proprietary protocols you have and claim people need to spend big bucks on are just open protocols you have intentionally made incompatible, and are trying to prevent people from implementing to preserve your monopoly-like status".

This is all about MS continuing to defy court rulings which say they're not allowed to enforce a software monoculture -- especially when all they did is minorly change existing protocols (or, take an existing idea and do it slightly different) and then patent them in order to make sure nobody else can communicate with their stuff. You know, continuing to do the exact same offence they were found guilty of doing in the first place -- and the enforcement which they've been trying to re-interpret to their own benefit for quite some time.

Microsoft is doing their usual obfuscate and delay tactics. The EU is starting to say "enough, do what we told you that you had to do".

Cheers

The actual qoute was...

[an.echte.trilingue]

Actually, according to the BBC, the actual quote was:

In the 50 years of European antitrust policy, it's the first time we've been confronted with a company that has failed to comply with an antitrust decision.

I find that statement rather significant. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6408391.stm