Microsoft yesterday asked a federal court judge to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit lodged against it by the US Justice Department and a coalition of 20 states.
In an 88-page motion for summary judgment, the software giant maintained that neither the facts in the case nor relevant antitrust law support the government charges.
"We are asking the court to dismiss the government's lawsuit in its entirety but, at a minimum, we hope the court will expedite resolution of this case by dismissing many of the key claims," said Microsoft attorney William Neukom.
The Justice Department and the states last May accused Microsoft of exploiting its dominance of the operating systems market to stifle competition in other sectors linked to Internet technology, notably the browser sector.
They asked US District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson to issue a preliminary injunction requiring Microsoft to include a browser made by rival Netscape in its Windows 98 system.
If Microsoft did not want to add Netscape's Navigator it would have to "unbundle" its own browser - known as Explorer - from Windows 98, according to the government petition.
The suit, scheduled to go to trial September 8th, would also oblige Microsoft to take other steps to ensure that rival software producers have sufficient access to Windows.
