Microsoft's two-front legal war

While it confronts looming European Commission antitrust sanctions after settlement talks failed Thursday, Microsoft still faces legal challenges in the United States.

The software behemoth has made steady progress in getting beyond its U.S. antitrust problems, agreeing to pay up to about $2 billion to settle class-action lawsuits filed in the wake of the U.S. government case, as well as an antitrust lawsuit filed by Time Warner.

Still facing the company are antitrust lawsuits by RealNetworks and Sun Microsystems, bitter rivals who have lobbied the European Commission to sanction the company.

A handful of class-action cases are also still pending around the country.

The suit filed by RealNetworks is still in an early stage, with the two sides arguing over whether it should be heard in California or in Microsoft's home state of Washington.

		special coverage Real sues Microsoft

In its lawsuit, RealNetworks claims Microsoft used its Windows monopoly to unfairly promote its own media playing software over Real's.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in California asks for more than a billion dollars in damages and restraints against unspecified Microsoft business tactics.

RealNetworks said Microsoft used its monopoly power to force Windows users to take Microsoft's media player, whether they wanted it or not.

Sun Microsystems filed its suit in March 2002. It is scheduled to go to trial before U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz in January 2006.

Sun's case builds on the rulings against Microsoft in the U.S. government's antitrust case, arguing that Microsoft used its market power to sabotage Sun's Java programming language.

Motz concluded in a 2002 ruling that Sun had a good chance of winning its private case against Microsoft. However, an appeals court in Richmond, Va., later reversed an order by the judge that would have forced Microsoft to incorporate Sun's Java programming language in Windows.

Beyond all that, Microsoft is still slugging it out against class-action antitrust cases in five states.

In March, a judge in Minnesota is scheduled to open the first of those trials, a class-action case filed on behalf of consumers in Minnesota.

Lawyers in that case are seeking more than $400 million on behalf of consumers whom they say were overcharged by Microsoft, according to Richard Grossman, of the firm Townsend and Townsend and Crew LLP.

Other cases are pending in Arizona, Iowa, New Mexico and Wisconsin, Grossman said.

Story Copyright  © 2004 Reuters Limited.  All rights reserved.