Research On Abusing Of Dominant Position In Software Industry

Software industry is the fundamental and strategic industry of national economy, as well as the core of information industry. The development of software is a significant landmark for the level of economic modernization and general strength of national economy. All the governments have given priority to the development of software industry. Currently, it is the developed countries such Europeans and the United States taking the leading position of the industry and dominating the majority of the core technology and Intellectual Property Rights while the developing counties including China are at a disadvantage. China's further integration into the global economy brings both opportunities and challenges to the development of software industry. And the transnational enterprises bring China not only technology and talents but also their monopoly power.Because the related legal system is not established in the past years, some large companies such as Microsoft,Intel,IBM,Sony are abusing their dominant position without restraint. They always squeeze national industry through price discrimination and predatory pricing relying on their dominant position on Intellectual Property Rights.In recent years, many software magnates such as Microsoft and Intel are defendants in lawsuits. Some Antitrust authorities including the United States, European Union, Japan and Korea have launched their anti-trust investigations according to their domestic law and imposed tough sanctions on these companies. But the situation in China is not so good. The Antimonopoly Law of People's Republic of China is expected to improve the system of China's anti-trust legislation but is still far from enough.As a result, effective measures should be taken in two aspects. On the one hand, the anti-monopoly legal system should be improved and perfected by the government. On the other hand, the Intellectual Rights Law should be modified in order to meet the demand of modernization. It is believed that with the improvement of legal system and the strengthened enforcement of law, the software industry will grow vigorously with a better competition order.This paper can be divided into four chapters:Chapterâ… will be a clear statement of"software industry and its market structures".Besides an introduction of the definition and characteristics of software industry, the abusing of dominant position in software industry will be analyzed in depth through taking the case of Tencent QQ in the field of Instant Messaging (IM).In Chapterâ…¡"the theory basis of Anti-monopoly Law and the regulation of abusing of dominant position", Two issues are analyzed in particular. First is the conflict and coordination between anti-monopoly law and the protection of Intellectual Property Right. Second is the government's role in the regulation of software market.In Chapterâ…¢"issues on practice of anti-monopoly law of software industry",The influencing factors which should be regarded under the special structure of software market is deeply researched. The particular manifestation of the abusing of dominant position in software industry is analyzed and an important statement is proposed based on previous study that essential Facilities Doctrine should been introduced to deal with this problem.The fourth chapter is a summarization of the legislative proposals to improve and perfect anti-monopoly law. Based on the analysis of the current stage and shortage of anti-monopoly protection of software industry, suggestions on the ways to perfect the related regulations and Intellectual rights laws and to make competition culture universal so as to improve the competitive environment will be proposed.