The Legal Analysis of Software Companies' Practice of Selling Software on Condition of Acquirinf Hardware Components and Software Integration

In some cases, software companies condition the sale of computer software on acquiring hardware components or integrate computer softWare with complementary software and hardware when designing products. Complementary software and hardware must be interoperable in terms of functionality. The specific nature of computer software causes network effects and mass production savings in software industry. The majority of software right abuse arises when the developer conditions licensing a software on the complementary software and hardware that makes it impossible to buy these products independently. Such condition in license agreements of computer software violates U.S antitrust laws provided that the developer has tied independent products and the seller has essential market power in the created products market. This condition has different competitive effects. In the Iranian law, the Act on the implementation of article 44 of the constitution which has stated the basic rules of competition, has not dealt with the issue perfectly and there are provisions in the Act on computer software developers and its by-law on interoperability. Given the absence of independent studies in this field, analysis of rules can lead to clarification of the subject.