Court findings that Microsoft Corp. unlawfully protected its monopoly for personal- computer software can be used in a suit by California computer owners seeking billions of dollars in damages, a judge said.
The ruling is a setback to the world's biggest software company, which had sought to keep the findings in the federal government's antitrust lawsuit from being used in the California case. The consumers claim they were forced to pay inflated prices for software because of Microsoft's monopoly.
"You've just taken care of half the case," said Ernest Gellhorn, an antitrust law professor at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia. "That's an enormous victory."
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