The one principle Microsoft Chairman William H. Gates III will defend to the end is his company's right to have complete control over the design of its products. Once again, that is being challenged. On Aug. 6, the European Commission's competition czar Mario Monti sent Microsoft a third and final "statement of objections," giving the company one last chance to respond to allegations that it is illegally leveraging its Windows operating system monopoly to gain unfair advantage in the server and audiovisual software markets. To bolster his case, Monti has gathered more evidence from consumers, suppliers, and rivals to show "abuses are still ongoing."

The end of Microsoft's four-year-old case is near, and Monti is digging in for a fight. In a press statement, he laid out potential remedies and revived the key policy issue facing global software: to what extent Microsoft can freely bundle new technologies into its monopoly operating system. While U.S. regulators have allowed Microsoft to do that, rivals see Monti as their last best hope to constrain the giant. His statement left them ecstatic. "The Commission's case has been really nailed down," says Thomas Vinje, a lawyer for the Computer & Communications Industry Assn., a trade group of Microsoft's rivals.