Microsoft's lawyers urged a federal appeals court to reverse a judge's order to break up the computer giant, saying the judge was biased and the US government did not prove the company engaged in unlawful conduct. In a court filing, company lawyers said the justice department had conceded that a breakup would not affect Microsoft's position in the market nor would it end allegedly unlawful conduct.

“This is not the story of a stagnant, dominated industry... the district court ignored competitive realities that require Microsoft to innovate and price its software attractively,” the lawyers said. Nothing Microsoft did excluded Netscape - the focus of the case - from the marketplace. The court's brief labeled as ‘extreme’, US district judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's order last June 7 that the computer giant be broken into two companies.

The US circuit court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit is scheduled to hear arguments February 26 and 27 in Microsoft's appeal. Bureau Report