China’s State Intellectual Property Office has denied a flurry of media reports suggesting the government agency was investigating Microsoft for discriminatory software pricing. In a statement briefly posted at its official Web site, according to media sources, the SIPO noted that it has never undertaken any market-monopoly investigations before, and has no plans to do so considering its mandate from Chinese government agencies is “to investigate and research domestic piracy issues.”

The statement was intended to contradict a report by Shanghai defense News in which an unnamed source had suggested to the Chinese financial newspaper that Microsoft would be vulnerable to a lawsuit following the debut of China’s forthcoming anti-monopoly law, which becomes effective Aug. 1. Microsoft quickly responded by telling western media outlets it was unaware of any antitrust exploration by Chinese authorities.

Widespread Coverage

The Shanghai defense News write-up was given coverage by the worldwide media, which deemed the news to

be credible considering SSN is wholly owned by the Xinhua News Agency — the official voice of the People’s Republic of China. SSN plus promotes itself by saying it serves as “the China Securities Regulatory Commission’s government-designated channel for disclosure for Chinese-listed companies.”

According to a joint study conducted by the Business Software Alliance and IDC, 82 percent of all PC software in China was pirated in 2007 — down from 92 percent in 2003. Under such circumstances, a Chinese review of Microsoft would have been most ironic, given that the software giant has suffered huge losses from lax anti-piracy regulations in China by the past five years.

Microsoft has been making a huge public-relations effort to rehabilitate its reputation as a monopoly. The software giant issued an interim status report that month that sought to show it is making progress in resolving U.S. antitrust issues…

Orginal post by Top Tech News