It's IBM turn to be investigated for anti-trust practices for tying of mainframe hardware to its mainframe operating system. The Commission initiative sustains the complains filled by T3 and Turbo Hercules, plus a second incentive that concerns alleged discriminatory behaviour towards competing suppliers of mainframe maintenance services.
IBM is rejecting the accusations and defends by saying: "we are fully entitled to enforce its intellectual property rights and protect the investments we have made in our technologies".
Conspiracy theory is also invocated by IBM: "The accusations made against IBM by Turbo Hercules and T3 are being driven by some of IBM's largest competitors - led by Microsoft".
EC already has won against major players like Microsoft (see my old post) so let's see what will happen now...
PS: for more details and business context analysis, check this blog: that focusses on how patents frightens free and open source software (FOSS).