Both sides in the Microsoft Corp antitrust trial have claimed that they are winning as the case goes into recess for at a month. Talking on the courthouse steps, Microsoft’s general counsel William Neukom said that the government has failed to show any harm to consumers in all its arguments. He said that the government was now trying Microsoft on the credibility of its witnesses, not the facts. Lead Microsoft attorney John Warden backed this up saying, When you don’t have the law and the facts on your side, you try the credibility. Neukom said that they had not made any decisions on the three likely Microsoft witnesses for the upcoming rebuttal phase of the case. Lead government attorney David Boies could make one solid promise about witnesses; the government will not be calling Bill Gates. New York’s deputy attorney general said that the government’s case was in wonderful, wonderful shape – claiming that the case had proved the government core arguments – that Microsoft was in a monopoly position and that it used this position to indulge in anti-competitive practices. Asked if he had been surprised by anything in the case, Boies said that he had been surprised by the testimony of Microsoft’s Dan Rosen because it didn’t fit the facts. Questioned on the length of what had been expected to be a six- to eight-week case – and now at four months and counting – Warden shrugged and said that trials have a life of their own. One person who certainly believes this is Judge Jackson, who, when asked about the length of the proceedings as he was leaving the courthouse at the end of the day, said that he had never expected it to last a mere two months.
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