Displaying items by tag: Monopoly

When Microsoft bought Skype it was to deal with a couple of issues. One of the big ones was to remove a competitor in the communications market and the other was to make sure they were not going to get sued for the direction their own communications services were taking. Microsoft had been floundering in the consumer market despite the multiple changes they tried to make to their messenger product. While their enterprise messaging software was complicated and expensive to maintain and to properly integrate with other messaging services. To combat this Microsoft was already looking to make their messaging services much more like Skype than they were.

Ok, so I have this truck that I designed it is about 20 feet long and a little over 10 feet tall. The truck weighs 4 tons and comes only in black. I want to sue you because you built a sub-compact car that has four tires. This is the equivalent of what the “High” court in Germany has done by banning the Galaxy Tab 7.7 claiming that it resembles the iPad. The court’s reasons? Well they seem to think that the Tab 7.7 has sides and a back that looks like the iPad which makes it an infringing product and warrants a complete ban on the product throughout the European Union. Makes sense right?

We already knew that Google was on the RADAR in the EU for possible AntiTurst issues (they were reported by both Microsoft AND Apple). The complaints seem to stem from a couple of items and while valid complaints are interesting in their timing. When the complaints were filed Google was still waiting to get the green light to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion (yes with a B). Motorola was also embroiled in a patent dispute with Microsoft and Apple over a few devices (Microsoft just won a ban on imports of all Motorola devices that infringe on this patent). With Google coming in as the new owners it seems that both Apple and Microsoft wanted to put something into the EU Commission’s mind about the Google.