Ties that bind: foreseeing foreclosure

Lawyers focus on whether behavior in the software industry fits into the present legal definitions for foreclosure and tying. This slant tends to cast antitrust issues as a question of judicial edicts over forbidden business tactics. While that focus is fine for some purposes, it is a narrow base from which to begin a broad discussion about competition policy in innovative markets. The one structural feature lying at the heart of vertical relationships in the IT industry is this: when firms innovate and commercialize technology, they act as both partners and competitors at the same time. Large and small firms alike do this. Although the current discussion focuses on the behavior of large firms, the author can anticipate the layman´s response-that the same rules ought to apply to any size firm