Microsoft Anti-Trust Litigation – The Case for Standards

Ken Krechmer, International Center for Standards Research, University of Colorado at Boulder, and Elaine Baskin

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 2000)

An initial decision in the Microsoft anti-trust litigation was reached April 3, 2000. The legal decision is to split the company into two parts, not dissimilar to the way the AT&T monopoly was broken up in 1984. However, such action may not be necessary or desirable to control this monopoly. Microsoft maintains their very successful operating system monopoly through the use of proprietary specifications as well as aggressive marketing. Open standards offer an alternative means to allow market forces to redress any Microsoft abuses. The use of proprietary specifications were developed in the 20th century to maintain monopolies. Now open standards may be used to maintain both competition and competitive advantage, which minimizes the potential for monopoly abuse.