IBM has chucked its toys out of the pram and is threatening to leave software interoperability standards bodies because they have unfair selection processes.

Biggish Blue published a new set of guidelines it plans to follow, which include encouraging standards bodies to have rules to protect their decisions from "undue influence." This is a clear dig at the way Microsoft pushed through its Office Open XML format through the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) body earlier this year.

IBM screamed blue murder when the Open XML format was fast tracked through the ISO despite objections from some members. IBM's new guidelines were hatched out during a barn storming meeting held online in May and June. It involved more than 70 experts who discussed the improvement of the standards system.

Big Blue thinks that open standards increase the range of software products and prevent one software vendor from capturing a large part of a market by locking users into a proprietary format and limiting their ability to easily switch to another product.

It will use the new guidelines to pressure organizations such as the ISO and ECMA into rethinking their procedures. If IBM withdrew from a standards body it would not be the end of the standard, and it is more likely that IBM would suffer.