Datel continues lawsuit against Microsoft

April 27th, 2010, 16:59 Posted By: wraggster

UK-based peripheral maker Datel is to continue with its antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, with a legal battle over the use of third party memory cards.

The company first filed the lawsuit in November 2009, after Microsoft blocked all but its own memory units from working on the Xbox 360. At the time Datel lawyers described Microsoft's actions as "predatory conduct undertaken to deliberately harm competition with no benefit whatsoever to consumers."

Microsoft (who is separately suing Datel over patent infringement for wireless controllers) attempted to have the lawsuit dismissed, but the US district court in San Francisco has ruled that Datel can proceed with five of the six original claims.

Microsoft had argued that Xbox 360 terms and conditions included an agreement that consumers would not use unauthorised accessories. The district court did not accept this though, nor Microsoft's reliance on a similar case involving Apple which featured a more binding contractual restriction.

The court did reject one of Datel's claims though, regarding Microsoft's alleged attempts at monopolisation of the console market - on the grounds that Datel was not a direct competitor.

"We’re gratified that the case will proceed and Datel looks forward to re-establishing the benefits of competition in the accessory market for all Xbox 360 users," said lawyer Daniel Asimow.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...inst-microsoft

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