Microsoft: Toss Out Fed's Case
Microsoft Corp. urged a judge Friday to throw out the government's landmark lawsuit and attacked what it saw as weak points in the complaint.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson didn't indicate when he might rule on Microsoft's request to dismiss the lawsuit, or at least important parts of it.
The Justice Department and the 20 states suing Microsoft repeated allegations that Microsoft moved illegally by, among other actions, bundling its Internet browser free with its popular Windows software to hurt Netscape Communications, which makes a competing browser.
The government also has accused Microsoft of offering exclusionary contracts to Internet companies to distribute its browser and of refusing to allow computer makers to remove easy access to the browser.
"Not only do they give it away, they bribe people to take it ... and they tie the product to their monopoly operating system," Justice Department lawyer David Boies said.
Lawyers also discussed a possible delay in the start of the trial, scheduled to begin Sept. 23. They talked privately with the judge in his chambers, then were ordered to talk among themselves.
Boies predicted any change in the trial date would be for "not long, I think, if there is a delay."
The judge clearly struggled to put into legal context some of the arcane technical issues raised in the historic case.
"I'm trying to find product analogies," Jackson said, asking Microsoft's lawyer at various times to compare its actions to those of dominant book publishers or camera manufacturers.
"All right, I think I follow you," the judge said at one point.
Microsoft insisted Friday it hasn't acted illegally to limit competition in the high-tech industry, which it described as a "dynamic and highly competitive marketplace."
Jackson asked Microsoft lawyer John Warden several pointed questions about the company's decision to bundle its browser with Windows.
The government claims that bundling amounts to illegal "tying" under federal antitrust law, because it forces customers who use Windows also to use Microsoft's browser.
The judge asked, for example, whether a dominant automobile engine manufacturer that also makes transmissions would be allowed to force General Motors to buy its transmissions as a condition of buying its engines.
Written By Ted Bridis