By Thor Olavsrud, InternetNews.com
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Friday
denied a request by Microsoft Corp. to delay turning the ongoing
antitrust case against the company back over to the U.S. Circuit
Court for the District of Columbia.
On Aug. 8, Microsoft asked
the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its appeal of the appeals court
finding that Microsoft did indeed act as an illegal monopoly, and
asked the appeals court to delay sending the case back to the lower
court pending the Supreme Court’s decision as to whether to hear
the case.
In June, the appeals court threw
out Circuit Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson’s remedy after
finding that he had acted improperly during the case by holding
secret meetings with journalists and making biased comments against
the company. However, the court chose not to invalidate Judge
Jackson’s finding that Microsoft had acted as a monopoly.
Now Microsoft is arguing that Judge Jackson’s conduct should
have invalidated his findings of fact as well as his remedy.
It is not yet clear whether the Supreme Court will consent to
hear Microsoft’s appeal, or if it would prefer to have the case
work its way through the lower court again before possibly taking
up any appeal that may result. According to reports, the court is
expected to make its decision on hearing the case by as early as
October, the same month Microsoft is scheduled to ship its new
Windows XP operating system. That operating system is coming under
increasing congressional
and regulatory
scrutiny.
For now, the case is headed back to the Circuit Court within
seven days, and a new judge will be selected randomly to hear it.
That judge will determine what remedy to impose on the company.
The case was brought against Microsoft by the U.S. Department of
Justice and 18 states.