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Hearing set in MSFT case
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August 29, 2001: 1:07 p.m. ET
Microsoft, government lawyers to update new judge on case Sept. 21
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Attorneys for Microsoft Corp. and the U.S. Justice Department are due in federal district court Sept. 21 to update the new judge in the case on the status of the four-year old antitrust case.
The government had been seeking an expedited hearing in the case, and before it received the court's order setting the Sept. 21 status conference it had filed a request for a hearing within 10 days. A spokeswoman for the department said Wednesday that the date set by the court satisfies the department's desire for a quick hearing.
Microsoft had earlier requested a delay in the district court consideration of the case while the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether to hear an appeal of its case, but the U.S. Court of Appeals rejected that request. The company issued a statement saying it is set to comply with the court's latest order.
"We look forward to resolving the remaining issues in this case and will work with the government to respond to the court's order," said the statement.
The 18 states that have joined in the antitrust case are also set to send representatives to the status conference.
Last Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly was named to hear the case, which was referred back to the district court level after the Court of Appeals overturned District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's earlier ruling that Microsoft be broken into two companies as a remedy for anticompetitive practices.
But the appeals court upheld Judge Jackson's finding in the four-year-old case that Microsoft held a monopoly in the market for computer operating systems, and that the company had broken U.S. antitrust laws by engaging in anticompetitive business practices.
Some company observers have suggested that Microsoft wants to prolong any future court proceedings as a guard against a potential court-ordered block of the release of the newest version of its operating system, Windows XP, until after the product is already in the marketplace later this fall. Some critics, including U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), charge that XP poses new anticompetitive threats to other software applications, a charge Microsoft denies.
A resumption of the court case puts new pressure on Microsoft to reach an out-of-court settlement with regulators, according to some court observers.
Judge Kollar-Kotelly ordered the parties to file a joint report by Sept. 14 identifying issues that remain for the court to resolve. She asked them to propose how to resolve the issues, including additional discovery and the nature of any additional expert testimony or motions.
The judge asked that the report specifically identify the nature of any additional evidential hearings as well as a proposed schedule. Microsoft had argued before Judge Jackson that it had been given virtually no time to locate, prepare and put on witnesses to argue why they company should not be broken up. 
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