We don’t have monopoly power: MS

WASHINGTON: Microsoft Corp. filed a long appellate brief Monday arguing it

must not be broken in two and denying every element of a lower court ruling that

it had violated the antitrust law.

Microsoft said the "entire proceeding" before US District Judge

Thomas Penfield Jackson had been "infected with error," and that the

"existing trial record was insufficient to support the radical relief"

requested by the Justice Department.

In fact, Microsoft told the appeals court that its Windows operating system

did not even constitute a monopoly if the market in which it operates is

"properly defined": "Microsoft does not possess 'monopoly

power,'" argued the firm in its written argument.

But the Justice Department said that the June 7 decision by Judge Jackson to

break up the company - after finding that Microsoft used its monopoly power in

personal computer operating systems to compete illegally - was "well

supported by trial evidence."

(C) Reuters Limited 2000.