Litigation as a business strategy

Last month we showed how Microsoft attacks Google by proxy in the courtroom. Microsoft makes this very visible and there are other similar examples where there is just speculation and guessing. We happen to have also mentioned IBM in this context and from such seemingly-far-fetched speculation comes more certainty.

Over on IT Jungle, I just read an interesting story about how Microsoft is (by proxy) cleverly using the same law that was just smacked over its head for Windows market dominance against IBM's mainframe base in Europe.

The story, by Hesh Wiener, is a fascinating look into the world of litigation-as-business-strategy, and details the complaint filed by Platform Solutions (PSI) against IBM for violating Article 82 of the European Commission (EC) Treaty. The complaint was filed, according to a Dec. 18 Reuters story, way back on Oct. 19.

That would be another SCO. Microsoft may be attacking IBM using other smaller companies. This is pretty major and we will certainly explore and cover this in the future. Do remember that IBM is gradually moving to GNU/Linux on the mainframe (I published an article about this just a fortnight ago) and that is just what's being fought against in Europe.

Speaking of proxies, the OOXML/ODF report which journalists talk about at the moment was apparently put together by a Microsoft proxy. We continue to gather evidence. There is also a good rebuttal [PDF]. ⬆