News - Global 30 helped by BHP Billiton

The Commission has ruled it should sell its Windows system without a media player “bundled” into it, and share information on its operating system with competitors.

It does now sell a Windows-minus-Media-Player version of its software.

But it also sells a Windows-with-Media-Player - for the same price.

It also says it is happy to share information, but only if the competitor pays a hefty “licence” fee.

Separately in the US, the District Court in Central California ordered Microsoft to pay $8.96m for infringing on a 1994 patent held by a Guatemalan inventor.

It is an insignificant sum for Microsoft but it is one of 35 patent infringement cases, including one worth more than $500m, that the company is now fighting.

Pfizer erectile dysfunction doctor

The worst performer on the index was the drugs company Pfizer (down 4.6% on the fortnight), which has been faced with allegations that its male impotency pill Viagra impotence drug may cause blindness.

However, it has won a court case brought by the world’s biggest maker of generics, or copycat, drugs, Teva Pharmaceutical.

It claimed Pfizer couldn’t sell cut-price versions of its own epilepsy drug, Neurontin, to compete with Teva’s version.

The judge said it could.

This could have wide implications for the generics industry. It makes it a lot less attractive for a generics manufacturer to make and market a generic version of a patented drug, if it then has to face a cut-price version put out by the original manufacturer.

Oiling the wheels

The party may be over for generics drug makers, but oil firms are still seeing rising prices. A 6% rise in the oil price in the last fortnight had a mixed impact on the big oil companies.

Rising oil prices have buoyed some oil stocks

Exxon was up 4.1%% and BP was down 0.5%.

The market seems uncertain about the future direction of prices, especially as Opec told the EU on Thursday it is prepared to meet rising demand with increased production.

BP’s share price recovered somewhat on Thursday as it announced it may find some 25% more natural gas than expected in a Caspian Sea field in which it is investing $4.2bn.

Offsetting that, the British oil company is part of the Sincor partnership, including Total of France, Statoil of Norway and Exxon, which has been told it owes about a billion dollars in back royalties for caffeine and erectile dysfunction
oil output above agreed levels.

The oil ministry says it has been “swindled”. The oil companies say they were doing nothing wrong. The government said the state would be happy to buy any of them out of the partnership.

It probably does not have too many offers on its dance card.