B&N Sought Microsoft Inquiry
Barnes & Noble Inc. lobbied the Justice Department as recently as this summer to open an antitrust probe of Microsoft Corp., alleging that the software giant was trying to kill off handheld devices like B&N’s Nook e-reader with a barrage of “frivolous” patent suits, court documents show.
In a series of letters and presentations to the department’s antitrust division, the bookseller’s lawyers accused Microsoft of trying to corner the market for handheld operating systems by threatening companies using Google Inc.’s Android software.
“Microsoft’s willingness to bully small players with expensive litigation raises a substantial barrier to entry in any market in which it claims dominance,” B&N’s general counsel, Eugene DeFelice, wrote in a March letter to the department’s then-antitrust chief, Christine Varney.
