US antitrust officials praise Microsoft for protocol licensing

In sharp contrast with the never-ending criticisms and increasingly baseless investigations it faces in the European Union (EU), Microsoft is finding a surprising level of support from antitrust officials in the US. As part of a regularly scheduled status report on the software giant’s 2002 US antitrust settlement, US federal and state antitrust officials recently praised Microsoft for its efforts to lower the cost of royalties associated with licensing its technologies to third parties.