Antitrust

Google could face a rough time in the courtroom if the FTC's antitrust case against it goes to trial.

To determine whether Google violated antitrust laws, the Federal Trade Commission is using the big guns with attorney Beth Wilkinson, an ex-prosecutor for the Department of Justice.

Wilkinson has developed a reputation as a powerful and determined litigator, successfully handling several cases that have put her into the limelight, says Reuters. She was the prosecutor in the trial of Timothy McVeigh, arguing in favor of the death penalty for the Oklahoma City bomber. In private practice, she has defended tobacco … Read more

European authorities who earlier cracked down on Microsoft's browser behavior are now are keeping an eye on its upcoming Windows RT operating system -- but they aren't saying yet whether they have any objections.

Mozilla last week criticized Microsoft's choice to deny browsers other than Internet Explorer privileges necessary to make what it sees as a competitive browser on Windows RT, the new version of the operating system for ARM processors. Specifically, IE gets access to deeper Win32 interfaces, but Firefox, other browsers, and any other third-party software only get access to the new and more limited WinRT interface. … Read more

It's a good thing legal action is Mozilla's "last resort" for resolving its disagreement with Microsoft over bringing Firefox to the upcoming Windows RT, because it's likely a difficult antitrust case to make.

That's because Windows RT, the version of the operating system geared for devices using ARM processors, is a different beast than conventional Windows running on traditional x86 processors. Microsoft's present rules would hobble non-IE browsers on Windows RT, but the company's market power is with Windows on x86 chips.

ARM chips dominate today's smartphone and tablet devices running … Read more

Do Google and other search engines have a constitutional right to control their own search results?

The answer is yes, at least in the opinion of UCLA law professor and First Amendment scholar Eugene Volokh.

In a report commissioned by the search giant (PDF), Volokh asserts that search results are a type of "opinion" based on what information the search engines believe would be most relevant to their users, according to news site PaidContent. Therefore, the results are protected by the First Amendment.

"Google, Microsoft's Bing, Yahoo Search and other search engine companies are rightly seen … Read more

Samsung continues to ramp up its patent battle against Apple.

The Korean mobile phone maker yesterday filed its own counterclaim to a prior Apple patent lawsuit, alleging that the iPhone maker has infringed on eight Samsung patents.

Filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California, Samsung's action was taken in response to a suit brought by Apple in February calling for a ban on U.S. sales of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone.

As described by Florian Mueller at Foss Patents, two of the patents are "FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory)-pledged" that Samsung maintains are … Read more

news analysis The U.S. Justice Department's legal pursuit of Apple for alleged e-book price fixing stretches the boundaries of antitrust law and is likely to end in defeat.

That's what happened in 1982, when an embarrassed Justice Department admitted its antitrust lawsuit against IBM was "without merit" and abandoned the case. And in 2001, a federal appeals court nixed the Justice Department's ambitious attempt to rewrite antitrust law by carving Microsoft into two separate companies.

"It's a harder case against Apple than the publishers," says Geoffrey Manne, who teaches antitrust law … Read more

Alongside a federal lawsuit aimed at Apple and book publishers for allegedly colluding to fix e-book prices, 16 state attorneys general in the U.S. today filed a lawsuit against three publishers and Apple.

The complaint, which was filed in the District Court for the Western District of Texas, takes aim at the Penguin Group, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Apple, and claims that the four companies worked together to raise prices on e-books, resulting in e-book buyers overpaying by some $100 million. (Disclosure: Simon & Schuster is owned by CBS, which also owns CNET.)

Unlike the federal suit on … Read more

The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed today that it has reached antitrust settlements for alleged e-book price fixing with three large publishers -- but said Apple has chosen to fight the charges in court.

Attorney General Eric Holder said at a press conference this morning (see video below) that the settlement will provide retailers like Amazon and Barnes and Noble the "freedom to reduce the prices of their e-book titles" in the future.

Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group, News Corp.'s HarperCollins Publishers, and Simon & Schuster (owned by CBS, which publishes CNET) agreed to settle … Read more

The European Commission today opened two formal antitrust investigations against Motorola Mobilty to determine if the company has breached its promise to offer fair patent licensing.

The Commission is specifically aiming to see if Motorola used its patents to hurt competition in violation of European Union antitrust laws.

The investigation is based largely on complaints from Apple and Microsoft, which have alleged that Motorola's licensing arrangements are not in accordance with FRAND, or "fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory," terms. Motorola had previously pledged to the EU that it would honor such terms.

The EC's probe will also … Read more