Microsoft Asks for Private Depositions

Microsoft Corp. asked a federal judge to allow it and the nine states suing the software company to conduct their pre-trial depositions of experts and company executives in private.

The company asked U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to toss out a 1999 ruling by the previous judge in the antitrust case that required all parties to conduct depositions of experts in public, in accordance with a federal rule encouraging open depositions in antitrust cases.

Because the Justice Department has dropped out of the lawsuit, Microsoft is arguing that the federal rule no longer applies. The nine states still suing Microsoft are not expected to oppose its request. But numerous media organizations have expressed interest in attending the depositions.

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Edmund Sanders