Barnes & Noble lobbied the US Justice Department as recently as this summer to open an antitrust probe of Microsoft, 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's Android software, the Wall Street Journal reports. "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. "Microsoft's exorbitant licenses for its patents entrench the dominant players in the relevant markets because those players can afford to take a license, while small players cannot," DeFelice wrote. B&N didn't say how much Microsoft was seeking for a licensing deal, but said it was more than the company could afford. B&N filed the documents at the International Trade Commission, where the company is defending itself against a patent-infringement lawsuit brought by Microsoft. One of the documents shows that B&N gave a presentation to Justice Department lawyers in July in which it called for the government to investigate Microsoft's allegedly anticompetitive behavior. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to comment. Microsoft has said Android infringes a number of its patents, and it has struck licensing deals with several makers of Android devices, including Samsung, HTC and Acer.
