New appeal Microsoft against European Commission

Microsoft has launched a second appeal case against the anti-trust decision by the European Commission in March 2004. On 10 August 2005 Microsoft filed a new complaint at the European Court of Justice (First Instance) in Luxembourg, asking for annulment of the decision to open up the Windows source code enough to create interoperability and allow open source vendors to distribute Windows source code.

“We are taking this step so the court can begin its review now of this issue, given its far-reaching implications for the protection of our intellectual property rights around the world,” said Microsoft spokesman Tom Brookes. The hearing won’t begin until 2006.

In December 2004, the Court of First Instance entirely dismissed Microsoft’s first legal objections to the sanctions and ruled that the Commission’s decision does not “cause serious and irreparable damage” to Microsoft. In March and again in June 2005, the Commission rejected a proposed license scheme because Microsoft did not agree to license the protocols for use in open-source products.

Microsoft files suit against European Commission (07.09.2005)
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2005-09-07T135028Z_01_SCH730321_RTRIDST_0_TECH-MICROSOFT-EU-DC.XML

Microsoft gets record-breaking fine (24.03.2005))
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number2.6/microsoft