China may target Microsoft Office as a monopoly
- TAGS:China, Microsoft, Office, Windows
- IT TOPICS:Applications, Enterprise Apps, Government & Regulation, Operating Systems, Windows
Microsoft may soon be the target of one of the most hypocritical lawsuits in history --- investigated by China for monopolistic practices regarding Office. A communist government investigating a private business from a capitalist society for being a monopoly? Welcome to alternative reality.
MarketWatch reports that China-based Evermore Software will release a competitor to Office this month, and that the company will sue Microsoft under a new anti-monopoly law that just went into effect.
"There's no question Microsoft engages in many monopolistic practices," Evermore Chief Executive Gus Tsao told MarketWatch.
As I've written previously, China's State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) began an investigation of Microsoft back in June for monopolistic practices regarding Windows. SIPO has since backed off. But SIPO will be involved in any Evermore action against Microsoft, so the communist government will be in the thick of things again.
It's tough to know, when it comes China, what the government will do. I would expect the government to wrest some kinds of concessions out of Microsoft in return for squashing the suit --- perhaps getting Microsoft to stop complaining publicly about widespread software piracy in China.
Either way, though, any suit will have less to do with the law than it does with strongarm tactics by an authoritarian government.
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