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Microsoft Awaits Verdict

Outcomes of the Microsoft case might set the look of the IT industry`s future, as said by Tomas Vinje. Vinje currently lead counsel for the European Committee for Interoperable Systems. "It is no exaggeration to say that the IT industry`s future development depends on the outcome of this case," he said. Vinje explained that the verdict "will determine whether the IT industry develops according to the Microsoft model or to a competitive model."

According to the ECIS, Microsoft has added undisclosed code to public standards for each of the five-core interoperability protocols used in workgroup servers. The group claims that Microsoft has been able to leverage its dominance of the desktop server market, where it has more than 90 percent, to grab a stranglehold on the workgroup server market, simply because customers will not risk seeing their non-Windows servers unable to communicate effectively with Microsoft servers.

"Microsoft has expropriated these public standards," Vinje told the judges.
That, he said, "leaves rivals in the dark." As a result, argued the ECIS, Microsoft has been able to carve out a 70 percent share of the workgroup server market. Microsoft disputed that it dominates the server market and claimed that interoperability already exists. David Evans, an antitrust and property rights expert testifying on behalf of Microsoft, argued that the workgroup server market was an artificial distinction created by the European Commission.