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OpenDocument and OOXMLThe Wall Street Journal reported this morning that EU regulators have announced a third investigation into Microsoft’s conduct on the desktop. This latest action demonstrates that while the EU has settled the case against Microsoft that ran for almost a decade, it remains as suspicious as ever regarding the software vendor’s conduct, notwithstanding Microsoft’s less combative stance in recent years. The news can be found in a story reported by Charles Forelle bylined in Brussells this morning.

According to the Journal, the investigation will focus on whether Microsoft “violated antitrust laws during a struggle last year to ratify its Office software file format as an international standard.” The article also says that the regulators are “stepping up scrutiny of the issue.” The Journal cites the following as the type of activity it will look into:

In the months and weeks leading up to [last summer’s vote on OOXML], Microsoft resellers and other allies joined standards bodies en masse — helping swell the Italian group, for instance, from a half-dozen members to 85. Opponents said Microsoft stacked committees. People familiar with the matter say EU regulators are now questioning whether Microsoft’s actions were illegal. Microsoft said at the time that any committee expansion had the effect of making more voices heard; it also said rival International Business Machines Corp. mobilized on the other side of the vote.

A Microsoft spokesman referred to a statement issued last month, in which the company said it would “cooperate fully” with the EU regulator and was “committed to ensuring” the company is in compliance with EU law.

This newest investigation follows only one month after the EU announced two other investigations, one into the integration of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Web browser into Office and Windows over competing alternatives, and another relating to the degree and ease of interoperability that Microsoft permits other vendors to achieve with Office.

The investigation will be especially welcome in standards circles, due to the wide range of reports from the field alleging misconduct by Microsoft. Although, as noted in the Journal article, Microsoft has claimed that IBM has engaged in similar conduct, I am not personally aware of any such incidents that have been reliably reported.

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• Andy Updegrove

  

  Andy Updegrove is a partner and founder of Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a Boston-based technology law firm, and has represented and helped structure more than 80 worldwide standard setting, open source, promotional and advocacy consortia over the past 20 years. He has also represented hundreds of both emerging as well as established technology companies, and is the founder and editor of both the popular website http://www.consortiuminfo.org and the widely-read Standards Blog

• Karen Copenhaver

  

  Karen Copenhaver is a partner in Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP ‘s Business & Technology practice focusing on technology transfer and licensing of intellectual property with a specific emphasis on open source business models. Most recently, Copenhaver was executive vice president and general counsel at Black Duck Software, Inc.