The South China Morning Post reports:

The state-run Shanghai Securities News on Wednesday cited unnamed sources as saying mainland firms would be organised to file lawsuits against Microsoft and several other large software companies after the new law comes into effect.

Agence France-Presse subsequently quoted a spokesman at the mainland’s intellectual property watchdog as saying SIPO was spearheading the investigation.

“The reports are seriously not factual,” SIPO said yesterday on its website, adding it “has no intention to do this kind of work at present”.

SIPO’s brief does not include enforcement of the anti-monopoly law. That duty falls on the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and one of its line departments, the Fair Trade Bureau.

Microsoft’s position as China’s No 1 software vendor and its track record with competition authorities in other jurisdictions would appear to make it a conspicuous potential target.

… Under mainland law, a company with a dominant market position - as many state-owned firms do across multiple industries - does not alone signal a breach of the new law.

Instead, the test is whether a company with a “dominant market position” abuses its standing to the detriment of competitors.

Michael Zhang, senior legal consultant at Sheppard Mullin Richter and Hampton, cited as an example a major telecommunications firm with an 80 per cent market share.

“Under the law, its overwhelming market share does not make it guilty. But if the company raises its fee 100 per cent for no apparent reason, it might have broken the new law,” Mr Zhang said.

As the article notes at the end, this will make no difference in Windows/Office’s market share in China. I can’t imagine the government seriously wants to control the price of software, or even to beat up on Microsoft legally.

But to continue to rumor-monger, maybe someone in the relevant government agency wants to give them a bloody nose. If it does happen, it should be fun to watch. Slick Microsoft lawyers, crusading government officials, the nebulous world of software piracy, it has all the makings of high (unintentional) comedy.

SCMP also has an amusing screed against Microsoft today. By Jake Vanderkamp, it begins with Paul Allen’s yacht and ends with US copyright imperialism.

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