Microsoft Suits Filed by Two Software Rivals Won't Be Dismissed
BALTIMORE — A federal judge Friday refused to dismiss antitrust cases filed against Microsoft (MSFT) by two small rival software companies.
Ruling simultaneously on suits by Be Inc. (BEOSZ) and Burst.com (BRST), U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz said he would allow the cases to proceed.
"I am satisfied there are sufficient allegations as to federal antitrust claims," Motz said in court after hearing arguments from the parties.
Be, which dissolved as a company last year, has alleged it was excluded from competing in the market for computer operating systems when Microsoft pressured computer makers not to ship computers with two operating systems.
Be sold its operating system to handheld device maker Palm Inc. in 2001.
Burst, based in Santa Rosa, California, said Microsoft forced it out of the market for video-streaming software by pressuring chip maker Intel Corp. and RealNetworks Inc. not to support Burst technologies.
Attorneys for Microsoft said the two cases should be thrown out, saying not all Microsoft's tactics were anti-competitive and questioning whether the two small companies were harmed.
Motz has been assigned cases arising from the landmark government antitrust suit filed in 1998 against the world's largest software company, including suits by Sun Microsystems Inc. and AOL Time Warner.
Later Friday, Motz was due to hear arguments by Microsoft to dismiss most of the Sun suit.
Last month Motz sided with Sun, granting a preliminary injunction ordering Microsoft to distribute Sun's Java programming language in the Windows operating system.
Two states, Massachusetts and West Virginia, have appealed as too weak a settlement of the government case endorsed by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar Kotelly in November.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in 2001, agreed that Microsoft had illegally maintained its monopoly in the Windows computer operating system but rejected breaking the company in two to prevent future violations.
