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Forrester, Ian S. --- "Victa Placet Mihi Causa: The Compulsory Licensing Part of the Microsoft Case" [2010] ELECD 475; in Rubini, Luca (ed), "Microsoft on Trial" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Microsoft on Trial

Editor(s): Rubini, Luca

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848442443

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: Victa Placet Mihi Causa: The Compulsory Licensing Part of the Microsoft Case

Author(s): Forrester, Ian S.

Number of pages: 51

Extract:

3. Victa placet mihi causa: the
compulsory licensing part of the
Microsoft case
Ian S. Forrester QC*

1. INTRODUCTION

On 17 September 2007, the 13 judges of the Grand Chamber of the
European Court of First Instance (CFI) rendered judgment in Case
T-201/04 Microsoft v Commission.1 A few days before the judgment, a
number of the advocate protagonists in the case who, at that moment,
had no idea what the CFI would do, gathered at a conference organized
under the auspices of the International Bar Association in the European
University Institute, Fiesole. The paper which I presented on that occa-
sion set forth the principal themes presented by that portion of the case as
to which I had the honour of serving as the advocate of Microsoft. Jean-
François Bellis, with whom I argued the case, is addressing the `product
integration' part of the case in Chapter 4 (with Tim Kasten).
The Microsoft Decision2 involved two alleged abuses. One related
to the design of the Windows operating system which drives the great
majority of personal computers, and the lawfulness of incorporating addi-
tional functionalities therein. The other related to the nature and extent
of Microsoft's duty to reveal details of how its server products interact,
notably as regards client-to-server and server-to-server communications.
Each alleged infringement in a sense concerned whether Microsoft, as an


* The opinions expressed are wholly personal. The remark in the title is found
in Lucan's literary work ...