Microsoft's final filing - a day early

Will Microsoft continue to bloom?

Microsoft has filed its final response to break-up proposals a day early.

The software giant said it had not needed the full two days to reply to the latest US Justice Department submission on the break-up plans on Monday.

This was because it had only included "cosmetic" changes.

The submission, late on Tuesday in the US, leaves the way clear for a final decision by trial Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson within a matter of days.

He has already ruled that the company has broken anti-trust laws, abusing its dominant position in the computer operating system market.

The US Government charged, and the court accepted, that Microsoft forced its customers to adopt its own browser by discounts and by putting pressure on computer makers, to the detriment of rival software maker Netscape.

Justice Department and Microsoft have spent the past two months putting together the case for and against the software firm being split.

Cosmetic changes

Judge Jackson had been expected to give a final ruling last week, but delayed the decision to give both sides time to put in fresh filings on the issue.

In its response to the Justice Department's final submission on Monday Microsoft asked the judge to include previously suggested language that would give a broken-up Microsoft more freedom to enter into agreements with software developers and computer makers.

"Instead of agreeing to correct the many defects in the revised proposed final judgement, and thereby minimise the damage that its entry would inflict on a wide range of participants in the computer industry, the government has agreed to only a few cosmetic changes," said lawyers for Microsoft.

It also said the latest US Justice Department submission was "confirming that certain provisions are more extreme than they might appear at first blush" and were "blithely ignoring substantial problems Microsoft identified regarding the feasibility of complying with many of the provisions as drafted".

In Monday's court filing, the department agreed to grammatical and semantic changes, but refused to concede to the company on major points such as giving Microsoft additional time to nail down details on how the break-up should occur, or more freedom in licensing and marketing its products.

Appeal seems certain

The Justice Department and 17 states want Microsoft broken up into two separate companies - one to market and produce Windows, and the other to handle Microsoft Office and other applications software, along with the Internet Explorer web browser.

But Judge Jackson has also suggested that a separate plan submitted to him, proposing a three way split, may be a better option.

Government lawyers, in their submission on Monday had accepted Microsoft's proposal to describe the break-up as a "divestiture" rather than a "reorganisation", but it rejected most changes "because they would undermine or frustrate the purpose and effectiveness" of its proposed remedy to break up the company.

Microsoft has already said it will appeal against the ruling - a move which could extend the landmark legal battle for months or years.