Microsoft will appeal the European Commission’s 2004
anti-trust judgement later this month, with product innovation and
intellectual property rights figuring highly in its
case.
The one week hearing will come as the two sides are still
arguing over Microsoft’s refusal to release documentation for its
workgroup server protocols in a format acceptable to the
Commission.
Microsoft has met all the other conditions set in the original
anti-trust decision, but because it hasn’t provided the protocol
documentation in an acceptable format, it faces a daily £1.4m
fine.
The documentation is needed by Microsoft’s rivals to help them
more easily make rival server products that work in a Windows
environment.
At a “final” hearing over last month, the European Commission
went away to consider the oral evidence offered by Microsoft over
the matter.
After the hearing Microsoft said it “knew what it had to do to
comply”. But it wasn’t fined, and there will now be speculation
that the company was perhaps holding out to the 24 April court
date, which will deal with the whole judgement.
Based on court filings, Reuters reports that the court hearing
will be used by Microsoft to argue that its workgroup server
protocols shouldn’t have to be shared.
Microsoft will claim its Windows technology is innovative and
that its Windows server protocols in particular are intellectual
property that should be protected.
This is despite the fact that the company has pledged to make
them freely available to other companies, as part of its long-term
negotiations with the Commission.