The government, encouraged by a US appeals court ruling, will try to stop Microsoft Corp from bundling new software into its Windows operating system, legal experts predicted.
After the ruling, antitrust enforcers, who have battled the world's largest software maker for almost a decade, signaled a determination to prevent the company from neutralizing competitors and forcing business partners to choose its Internet technology.
A federal appeals court, while overturning a trial judge's order to split Microsoft in two, ruled 7-0 this week that the company is a law-breaking monopolist. Antitrust enforcers say that gives them ammunition to seek strict curbs on the company's business practices.
"Microsoft dodged a bullet," said Ed Black, president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, a trade group that supports the government's case, "but the gun is still loaded."
In fact, the US Court of Appeals for the Washington Circuit didn't rule out a breakup, though it set out stringent requirements if the government attempts that.
The government's renewed demands on Microsoft may be made at the negotiating table or back before a judge designated to oversee the case on remand. Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who ordered the breakup, was thrown off the case by the appeals court for appearing to be biased.
State antitrust enforcers say they will scrutinize XP, the next version of the Windows operating system that runs 95 percent of the world's personal computers. Due out Oct. 25, Windows XP bundles such programs as a digital music player, an Internet phone and instant messaging.
Some of the 19 state attorneys general that joined the US in suing the company three years ago say they are concerned Windows XP is anti-competitive.
"Anything that is included within the operating system is going to be subject to monopolization analysis," said former Representative Tom Campbell, who now teaches antitrust law at Stanford University.
James Tierney, a former Maine attorney general and consultant to the states, cited Microsoft's so-called .Net and Hailstorm strategies to develop Internet services as examples of the company's campaign to extend its monopoly.
"If you are a prosecutor, how do you go forward with a remedy in the face of this?" he said. "Microsoft is a great and consistent company in their business behavior. They will do it until stopped."
"It is hard to imagine that Windows XP could comply" with Jackson's order, said Andrew Gavil, a Howard University law professor.
RSS