California is leading a group of U.S. states to push for an extension of the antitrust judgment against Microsoft, which is scheduled to expire later this year, in an effort to protect emerging technologies.
Stephen Houck, an attorney representing California and five other states, told a U.S. judge in Washington Tuesday at a hearing that an extension was necessary to ensure that Microsoft's new Vista operating system continues to comply with the antitrust settlement.
Microsoft, the U.S. Justice Department and 17 states reached a settlement five years ago, which put the software giant under supervision by a U.S. district court for any suspicious monopoly activities. The antitrust settlement would expire in November as scheduled.
Houck said that the states would file a request calling for the early extension of most provisions dealing with Microsoft's treatment of so-called middleware products.
A U.S. federal appeals court in 2002 upheld a finding that Microsoft illegally maintained its monopoly on computer operating systems through a variety of anticompetitive tactics that effectively quashed competitors' software threatening its market-dominant Windows.
Source:Xinhua
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