Microsoft and the European Commission will clash in court over innovation and intellectual property rights when the software giant appeals against a 2004 anti-trust decision, according to court papers seen by Reuters. Microsoft wants to turn around the Commission"s decision that it abused the dominance of its Windows system to muscle out rivals who did not have enough detail of the operating system to create efficient software that could run with it. Europe"s top antitrust authority ordered the company to share information -- so called protocols -- so that other software makers could compete.
In a one-week hearing at the European Union"s second-highest court starting on April 24, Microsoft will argue that rivals were always able to make interoperable software and the Commission"s demands threaten Microsoft"s intellectual property rights. Microsoft will essentially argue that it should not have to give away its intellectual property, having spent effort and money inventing it, only because it became successful. "Microsoft relies on the fact that its communication protocols are technologically innovative and are covered by intellectual property rights," the document said. "Microsoft had designed its Windows server operating systems from the outset to interoperate with non-Microsoft server operating systems," it added.