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Microsoft Seeks Seven-Month Delay, Consolidation of Lawsuits

Claiming that the government had 18 months to prepare its case, the software company says it needs time to prepare its rebuttal.

By Elinor Mills, PCWorld   

In its motions in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, the software giant asked the court to establish a %dquotfair and reasonable schedule%dquot that will allow it to gather documents from the government, request information from third parties, depose government and third-party witnesses, and prepare its response to the government%squots requests for preliminary injunctions.

A hearing to schedule the U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit is set for tomorrow.

While defendants are ordinarily given five days to file their opposition to a preliminary injunction, according to Microsoft%squots motions the company is asking that it be given 225 days, or at least seven months, to respond. Microsoft proposes that the government have 14 days after that to reply before a trial is held.

Microsoft in its motions said the Justice Department and state governments don%squott mind giving the company more time, but don%squott agree to Microsoft%squots schedule.

As far as consolidating the federal and state lawsuits, Microsoft said the state officials don%squott mind merging them at all. However, while the Justice Department doesn%squott object to consolidating for the purposes of discovery, the agency thinks it%squots premature to decide whether they should be consolidated for trial, according to Microsoft.

The Justice Department and attorneys general from 20 states, along with the District of Columbia, filed the lawsuits Monday following weeks of industry speculation and negotiations with Microsoft executives. The lawsuits accuse Microsoft of unfairly using its Windows operating system monopoly to gain a larger share of other software markets, including Internet browsers.

Specifically, the lawsuits ask the court to require that Microsoft do the following: include Netscape%squots Internet browser alongside Microsoft%squots Internet Explorer in Windows 98, or else unbundle IE from Windows 98; give computer manufacturers the right to install their own first screen at the conclusion of the initial boot sequence; and give computer manufacturers additional options for installing browser software on new computers. Also, the lawsuits ask the court to forbid Microsoft from enforcing contractual provisions that require providers of Internet and online services and Internet content to limit their distribution and promotion of competing browsers.

The state lawsuits also accuse Microsoft of anticompetitive practices with regard to its productivity applications.

In its motions today, Microsoft complains that if the court grants the government%squots requests, it would require the company to develop a new operating system, which would take months, if not years, because IE is a critical element of Windows 98. In addition, such a product would be of %dquotno commercial value,%dquot it claims, because other operating system software vendors include Internet-related technologies in their products, Microsoft said.

Allowing computer manufacturers to %dquotmodify%dquot Windows 98 by substituting non-Microsoft browser software for IE is not feasible, and even if it were it would %dquotconstitute an unprecedented confiscation of Microsoft%squots intellectual property rights,%dquot the motions said.

Granting the government%squots requests %dquotwould thrust this court into the %squotunwelcome position%squot of designing computer operating system software,%dquot Microsoft argued.

Justice Department spokesman Michael Gordon declined to comment on Microsoft%squots motions, saying the agency %dquotwill respond as appropriate in court.%dquot

A Microsoft spokesman said that since the Justice Department had at least 18 months to prepare its case against Microsoft, the software giant should get at least 7 months to do the same. %dquotWe want to get this matter behind us as soon as possible, but we need a reasonable amount of time to respond to the government%squots request for a preliminary injunction that would be extremely far-reaching and could have a major negative impact on consumers and the high-tech industry,%dquot said Greg Shaw.

The lawsuits expand on an October 1997 complaint filed by the Justice Department that maintained Microsoft was violating a 1995 consent decree by forcing PC makers to include the IE browser as a condition of licensing Windows 95.