In 2004, Japan's Fair Trade Commission issued a formal recommendation finding that a 'non-assertion of patents' clause in Microsoft's licensing contracts with Japanese PC makers violated the country's antimonopoly law. The clause barred manufacturers from suing Microsoft — or one another — for infringing their patents in Windows, which regulators said discouraged Japanese firms from developing their own technologies and undermined fair competition. It was described as the first such action against the clause by any regulator. After Microsoft contested the finding, the JFTC issued a cease-and-desist order in 2008 requiring it to stop enforcing the provision. The case was part of a wave of global antitrust scrutiny of Microsoft's contract terms.