The US Department of Justice is conducting an antitrust investigation of the CD-ROM industry. Two companies, Philips (Netherlands) and Sony (Japan) control all basic CD patents and the Justice Department is investigating their technology licensing practices. Civil investigate demands have been issued, where request from companies all documents pertaining to the anti-trust investigation. It is guessed that Justice wants all information on cross-license pacts between Philips and Sony. Not only are current technologies under consideration, but also efforts by Sony and Philips to control the standardization of the next generation of CD technology. Other companies such as Matsushita, JVC, Toshiba, and Nimbus Technology and Engineering are all developing CD technologies, one of which may be superior to Philip/Sony but locked out by the licensing practices of these companies. Greg Aharonian Internet Patent News Service (for subscription info, send 'help' to patents@world.std.com) (for prior art search services info, send 'prior' to patents@world.std.com)