Microsoft Criticizes EU During Appeal

Microsoft squared off with the European Commission in court Wednesday, saying an EU order to force the Redmond company to hand over trade secrets was unfair. Microsoft's rivals countered that the company was trying to avoid the central issue that it had abused its monopoly powers.

The order was the focus of the third day of Microsoft's appeal in the European Union Court of First Instance. Microsoft lawyer Ian Forrester accused the European Union of attempting to permanently handicap the company, and would damage the rights of patent holders in the future.

However, a lawyer for the European Committee for Interoperable Systems said such a charge was a gross exaggeration. Thomas Vinje asserted that Microsoft was attempting to turn this into an intellectual property case when it was "a case about abuse of a dominant position."

The judge presiding over the appeal seemed to agree with Vinje, and reprimanded Forrester for not sticking to the issues of the case. Microsoft had struck an agreement earlier that said it would not bring up the recent dispute over compliance in the courtroom.

Microsoft lawyers are contending that a 12,650 page technical manual required by the EU as part of a March 2004 antitrust ruling was sufficiently clear, while at the same time arguing that the entire judgment should be overturned.

The Commission cited a third-party review of the manual that called it insufficient. It additionally noted problems with interoperability that it says furthers its case that Microsoft is abusing its monopolistic power.

Both sides plan to cite evidence from IBM, Novell, Oracle, and Sun to further their cases. While none of these companies are directly involved in the European Union dispute, they are members of two organizations backing the Commission's case against the software giant.

A final decision in the appeal is not expected for several months at the earliest.