The Microsoft Case

Shortly after Microsoft was faced with federal antitrust charges, full-page newspaper ads supporting Microsoft's claim of innocence were run by the Independent Institute. The ads took the form of a letter signed by 240 academic experts and purported to be a scholarly, unbiased view of why the government had gone overboard in its case against the company. According to an article published in the New York Times, Microsoft had not paid for the ads, but was in fact the single largest donor to the Independent Institute, a conservative organization, that has been a leading defender of the company since it first came under fire from federal prosecutors.

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Examples of Mainly Corporate Funded Think Tanks: Manhattan Institute

The Manhattan Institute, founded by William Casey, who later became President Reagan's CIA director, besides subsidies from a number of large conservative foundations has gained funding from such corporate sources as: The Chase Manhattan Bank, Citicorp, Time Warner, Procter & Gamble and State Farm Insurance, as well as the Lilly Endowment and philantropic arms of American Express, Bristol-Myers Squibb, CIGNA and Merrill Lynch. Boosted by major firms, the Manhattan Institute budget reached US$ 5 million a year by the early 1990s.

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Procter and Gamble

Major American manufacturer with headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. The modern Procter & Gamble markets products in several major areas: Laundry and cleaning products; personal-care products; food products; and such miscellaneous products as cellulose pulp, chemicals, and animal feed ingredients. The company has long been one of the leading American national advertisers.

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Industrial design

Industrial design refers to the ornamental aspect of a useful article which may constitute of two or three-dimensional elements. To be qualified for intellectual property protection the design must be novel or original. Protection can be obtained through registration in a government office and usually is given for 10 to 15 years.

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