Microsoft denies threatening Denmark over patents

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shall not dictate Danish IT policy," in which it said corporations have no right to dictate Danish policy.

Andersen said Microsoft has had discussions with the Social Democrats about this press release.

"I've just called the Social Democrats," Andersen said. "It's unfortunate that they put out the press release before they spoke to Microsoft."

Prosa, a Danish union for computer professionals, has also criticized Microsoft over Borsen's allegations.

Microsoft is not the only large company that stands accused of trying to influence the debate about the directive. Last month, Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported that the Polish subsidiaries of Siemens, Nokia, Royal Philips Electronics, Ericsson and Alcatel sent a letter to Poland's prime minister, outlining their concerns about the directive.

The letter implied that the respective companies might reconsider making investments in Poland if the Polish government continued its resistance to the directive, according to a translation of the article provided by antipatent campaigner Florian Mueller.

The Polish government has since said it will no longer stop the Council of the European Union from ratifying the directive, though it will support any country's request for the directive to be delayed or revised.

Siemens, Nokia, Philips, Ericsson and Alcatel were all unable to respond in time for this article.

Ingrid Marson of ZDNet UK reported from London.

What MS blackmail and use sleazy tactics to gain unfair advantages?

Alert the media! This is just shicking. :p