Microsoft Corp said yesterday it is ready to put a stripped-down version of its Windows operating system on the market if it fails to persuade a judge this week to suspend a landmark EU antitrust decision.
Microsoft is appealing a ruling the EU made in March that included a record US$600 million fine as well as orders to hand over software code to its rivals in the server market and to change the way it packages its own Media Player software into Windows.
"We'll certainly be ready to comply," Microsoft's chief lawyer, Brad Smith, told reporters.
He said the US software giant had "spent millions of dollars over the past few months" to prepare a version of its operating system that would satisfy EU regulators.
In the past, Microsoft has said it would face difficulties implementing the Media Player order, arguing that the software for playing digital audio and video was integral to other functions of the operating system, such as the "help" system.
The European Commission ordered it to offer a version of Windows without the Media Player to allow rival makers like RealNetworks Inc a better shot at landing on consumers' desktops.
The two sides will face off Thursday and Friday before the president of the Luxembourg-based European Court of First Instance, Bo Vesterdorf, who will decide whether to freeze the EU's punishment pending a final decision on the appeal.
William Cornish, a professor at England's Cambridge University and a leading authority in intellectual property law, will appear as a star witness for the commission to argue why it is vital to competition that Microsoft be forced to reveal the Windows code.
Microsoft's lawyers are expected to cite Cornish in their arguments at the hearing as well, said Ian Forrester, a partner with the law firm White & Case, which will present Microsoft's case.
"I have great respect for him, but in this case his arguments don't enhance the case of the com-mission," Forrester said on Friday.
Microsoft's lawyers will call Peter Prescott, another lawyer well known in the area of intellectual property, as a witness to support its argument that the commission's order to reveal Windows code violates the company's intellectual property rights.
Microsoft's opponents are equally adamant that a failure to invoke the orders immediately will allow Microsoft to monopolize the market for media players and prevent competitors from challenging it.
They also dispute Microsoft's arguments that the orders would cause it irrevocable damage.
"Breaking the Windows world forever is rubbish," said Thomas Vinje, a competition and intellectual property lawyer with the law firm Clifford Chance, which will represent the Computer and Communications Industry Association at the hearing.
He said he was confident that the commission would win both arguments, but said he was most confident of winning on Media Player.
Intellectual property cases like the code-sharing order "send off alarm bells among lawyers," he said.
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