Sonia Arrison of the Pacific Research Institute looks at the IP implications of the EU-Microsoft battle:

If Eurocrats can force Microsoft to give up significant chunks of its valuable IP, there's no stopping them from doing likewise to other successful American companies. The next target may be Apple Computer (Nasdaq: AAPL) Latest News about Apple, which recently got in a spat with French legislators when they passed a bill to force the sharing of iTunes code. And the problems don't end in Europe.

Korea, for instance, has already sicced its competition police on Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) Latest News about Qualcomm, Microsoft and Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) Latest News about Intel and China is starting to re-examine its antitrust laws. What many countries are calling "competition policy" is starting to look a lot like anti-Americanism that specifically targets successful U.S. companies. If so, that is a disastrous outcome that doesn't bode well for the future. America's tech community and political leaders should sit up and take notice of these developments before it is too late

posted by James DeLong @ 9:45 AM | International

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