T3, partly owned by Microsoft, had accused IBM of yanking its IBM reseller agreement when T3 refused to stop selling technology that allowed customers to end older versions of IBM's mainframe operating systems on Intel-based servers. The T3 dispute with IBM is part of CCIA's complaint filed with the DOJ, as well as part of an antitrust investigation against IBM launched by the European Union in mid-2008.
"We continue to believe there is no merit to T3's claims, and that IBM is fully entitled to enforce our intellectual property rights and protect the investments that we have made in our technologies," Breuer said.
Part of CCIA's complaint stems from the tech company's treatment of former competitor Platform Solutions. IBM had little competition in the mainframe market before early this decade, when Platform Solutions began work on servers that could mimic the behavior of more expensive IBM mainframes, CCIA said.
Based on past mainframe agreements between IBM and the DOJ, Platform Solutions requested copies of IBM's OS and technical information under a licensing agreement. IBM declined and prohibited customers from transferring IBM software licenses to Platform Solutions machines, said CCIA, which has members that are potential competitors of IBM.
In 2006, IBM sued Platform Solutions over licenses the smaller company had purchased from Amdahl, a division of former mainframe competitor Fujitsu. IBM's lawsuit alleged that the licenses infringed its intellectual property. Platform Solutions filed a countersuit. In 2008, IBM purchased Platform Solutions, putting an end to the legal wrangling.
IBM also refused to license its mainframe OSes to users of the Hercules open source mainframe project trying to run mainframe software on non-IBM hardware, CCIA said.
But the complaint goes "way beyond" the Platform Solutions, T3 and Hercules cases, Black said. Many mainframe customers would like to find cheaper alternatives, but IBM has prevented them from doing so, he said.
"There's a number of things they have done to numerous companies," he said. "In a time of economic troubles, government deficits and corporate problems, there's a lot of customers that [would find] a choice and lower costs really desirable."