CEC MS antitrust procedings and patents --- article in FT
An article on page 1 of Financial Times of 2003-03-24 by Daniel Dombey and a follow-up of 2004-03-15 reported as much as anyone so far was able to find out about the Commission's planned provisions on Microsoft's use of patents. Sources at the Commission were not willing to reveal more details as of 2004/03/23.
Spiegel report about "providing more patent information against reasonable payment"
phm: Sinnlose EU-Patentauflagen an MS
Bolkestein protests against harshness toward Microsoft
As reported by Pressetext Austria - a commercial Austrian news service - in http://www.pressetext.at/pte.mc?pte=040224011 (in German language) the member of the European Comission Frits Bolkestein intervenes one more time in support of Microsoft to lower the pending fine for abusing the monopoly (as admitted by Microsoft itself) on the operating system on desktop computers.
The key aims of the intervention - according to the message - are to avoid a "too drastic fine" meaning the amount of money and devaluation of "intellectual property" of Microsoft. Further, according to Bolkestein, the verdict sould not force Microsoft to change its policies and methods which are applied against its competitors.