Legal Update

Like a pair of boxing promoters, Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) are taking competing positions regarding the venue for their next fight. The DoJ wants to perform before the Supreme Court of the United States, where it believes it can score a quick knockout. Microsoft prefers a lower court of appeals, where it believes it has a good chance for a positive decision or, at minimum, a delay that could make a final decision less painful. Microsoft’s legal team has also been busy fending off dozens of class-action suits based on evidence presented at the antitrust trial.

Venue for Appeal

The DoJ has already taken advantage of a law that permits often-lengthy antitrust cases to skip lower appeals courts and go directly to the Supreme Court. After Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled in June that Microsoft was guilty of antitrust violations and should be split up, the DoJ successfully petitioned Jackson to send Microsoft’s appeal directly to the Supreme Court, bypassing a federal court of appeals. The DoJ, at times quoting Microsoft’s own statements about what is at stake in the case, says the urgency created by Microsoft’s existing market dominance, and importance of the case for the booming U.S. technology sector, require rapid—and unappealable—resolution.