The European Commission's landmark decision against Microsoft last month is out of step with legal precedent, business realities and a settlement in the US, the software giant company is set to argue in court.

A briefing circulated by Microsoft to its lawyers and economists sets out the arguments that Microsoft is likely to use in its appeal, due to be lodged in June.

The Commission decision striking down the company for abusing its Windows monopoly is set to be published as early as today.

Brussels says Microsoft choked off competition in the server systems market by denying its rivals interface information and illegally "tied" its Media Player program to Windows - reducing demand for rival products.

Microsoft's reply accuses Brussels of "seeking to make new law reducing incentives for research and development that are essential to global economic growth".

The Commission decision says: "Microsoft interferes with the normal competitive process, which would benefit users in terms of quicker cycles of innovation due to unfettered competition on the merits."

Microsoft says that the European Commission decision requires it "to make available to its competitors well over 100 communications protocols" for which it holds "dozens of patents".

The company will be also seeking a suspension of orders to license such information and to offer European PC makers a version of Windows without Media Player.

The company says the Commission's stance on sharing information "rests on a very narrow product market definition that bears little resemblance to the real world". - (Financial Times Service)