Microsoft will say this week that 76 days of testimony in its antitrust trial have proven that consumers enjoy the benefits of vigorous competition between its Web browser and one offered by Netscape.
In its proposed findings of fact, due to be presented to the trial judge Tuesday, the software giant will maintain that it continues to face challenges in a swiftly changing industry, a lawyer working for the company said in an interview.
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The Justice Department and 19 states, on the other hand, are expected to assert there is ample support in the voluminous testimony and exhibits for their charge that Microsoft holds monopoly power in personal computer operating systems.
The government contends Microsoft used that monopoly power to bully its way to dominance in the Internet browser market over Netscape, which was sold to America Online after the trial started last year.
A person close to the plaintiffs said the Web browser market "has been tipping toward Microsoft," but the Microsoft lawyer said there is "vibrant competition" in the browser market.
The government will argue that Microsoft choked off Netscape's avenues of distribution on its way to dominance.
Microsoft disagrees.
"Our view is that the channels of distribution in this instance were wide open," a Microsoft lawyer said of the competition for Web browsers.
A lawyer sympathetic to the government's views said Microsoft cut vital channels for Netscape's distribution, such as exclusive distribution with new computers.
The lawyer likened the situation to cutting off air travel from the East Coast to California -- there are many other ways to go but they are impractical for most business people.
Such arguments will run into the hundreds when the findings of fact are submitted to the judge Tuesday. Each finding will be backed with citations to the mountains of testimony and exhibits presented at trial.
The judge could wind up with more than 1,000 pages of filings to read, and even more once each side submits replies on 10 September.
US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson will use the proposed findings of fact as the first step in deciding what was proven at trial.
