Microsoft Corp issued its first formal response to antitrust charges filed against it by the federal and state governments late yesterday, throwing in a countersuit of its own. The lawsuits were completely groundless said the company. In a statement, Microsoft said that the government’s central accusation that it incorporated its browser technologies into Windows to hurt Netscape was untrue because it decided to include Internet Explorer technologies in Windows 95 before Netscape was even founded. The decision had been made in response to moves by IBM Corp and Apple Computer Inc to incorporate Internet-related technologies within OS/2 and MacOS, it said. Microsoft also denied that it had attempted to illegally divide the browser market with Netscape in the Spring of 1995, that it had attempted to tie-in internet service providers into exclusive contracts for Explorer, and that it had illegally restricted PC manufacturers from altering the Windows desktop boot-up screen. Microsoft’s counterclaim against the 20 State Attorneys General who sued the company earlier in the year alleges that the State’s lawsuits unconstitutionally undermine the company’s intellectual property rights under federal law. The company cited the Federal Copyright Act of 1976, under which copyright owners have the right to license their products to third parties in an unaltered form. The anti-trust case goes to trial on September 8. We are working hard to prepare our cas in the short time frame provided by the court said Microsoft senior VP William Neukom.
