Judge's decision is final: Last chance for Microsoft

Lawyers are expected to argue that Microsoft's behaviour was lawful but that district court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson was biased and his ruling that Microsoft be split - into an operating systems company and an applications business - was extreme.

A seven-judge panel will hear two days of arguments from government and Microsoft lawyers.

Trial observers claim today's hearing is the best chance the company has to overturn the judgement. The court ruled in Microsoft's favour two years ago and overturned a ruling that the company should separate Internet Explorer from the Windows operating system.

It is also expected that the Bush administration's head of the antitrust division, Charles James, will look favourably upon the software giant. James is quoted in the past as saying consumers had benefited from the bundling of the IE browser with Windows.

Today the judges will debate the question of Microsoft holding a monopoly in the PC market and whether it was illegal to bundle the browser and the operating system.

Tomorrow, government allegations of whether it sought to hang onto its monopoly through its bundling policy will come under the microscope.

The company might have a harder time convincing the panel of seven to overturn the monopoly maintenance claim.