Court Denies MS Request for IBM Docs

A New York court on Thursday denied Microsoft's subpoena to obtain documents from IBM for its European Union antitrust appeal. The decision is the last of three cases the Redmond company had pending in U.S. court, and all have been denied.

As with past rulings, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon accused Microsoft of attempting to skirt European Union law, calling it a "blatant end run" around the EU Commission's authority. McMahon also said, as have previous judges, that she would not interfere in the matters of a foreign court.

In late March, a California District Court turned down Microsoft's attempt to obtain documents from Sun and Oracle. This was followed by a court decision in Boston that denied access to documents from Novell. In both cases, Microsoft was admonished for attempting to circumvent EU laws.

Microsoft said "the writing is clearly on the wall" for these decisions, and they have decided to not pursue the matter further.

While it may be giving up legally, the same can not be said about Microsoft's comments in public. The company is accusing the EU Commission of collusion with rivals in order to prevent it access to key documents.

The regulator ruled that Microsoft's rivals had a right to confidentiality, since any negative information those companies may have provided could provoke retaliation from the software giant. All four companies supported the EU's decision that Microsoft is not doing enough to comply with a 2004 antirust ruling against it.

Experts say that even if Microsoft is persuaded to comply fully, the 2 million euro fines backdated to December 15 would likely stick. This means that hundreds of euros in fines would be added on top of the initial 497 million euro penalty.

Microsoft and the EU are set to face of in the European Union Court of First Instance on Monday to argue that ruling.