Lawyers representing the US Department of Justice and 17 states
yesterday objected to Microsoft’s suggestion that a full year be
granted to develop details of the company’s break up for
anti-competitive practices, describing a full year as
“unwarranted.”
The Department instead propose that “not later than four months”
after a final judgement on the remedy, the company must submit a
plan for the break up.
Government lawyers had asked the permission of the court to
present the legal brief with areas of agreement on Microsoft’s most
recent filing. However, most agreements were minor and related to
matters such as agreeing definitions. For example, the government
has agreed to call the break up a “divestiture” rather than a
“reorganisation”. 20 pages of Microsoft proposals were rejected by
the government.
Microsoft has until tomorrow to respond to the filing. Judge
Jackson can then give his ruling on the remedy to be imposed on
Microsoft following the finding of its anti-competitive practices,
although Microsoft’s lawyers do not expect him to disagree with the
government’s proposal of breaking the company in two.
