The Preliminary Injunction Appeal

    On May 5, 1998, Microsoft motioned that the appeals court stay Judge Jackson's ruling as it applied to the upcoming Windows 98 operating system, on the grounds that the court had not heard any evidence relating to Windows 98, only to Windows 95. The Appeals Court granted this stay on May 12, ensuring that the release of Windows 98 on June 25 would not be affected by the court proceedings.

    In reaction, federal and state officials filed several parallel suits in an attempt to block the release of Windows 98. In the first court appearance on May 22 the judge ruled that there was no need to seek the injunction against Windows 98 that was suggested by the DOJ. The judge also ruled that the suits filed by the states’ attorneys general would be merged with the DOJ case.

    On June 23, 1998, a three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals ruled unanimously to overturn Jackson's injunction, saying Microsoft had demonstrated sufficiently that Internet Explorer was integrated with the Windows operating system and thus protected under the consent decree, and that that integration had benefited consumers.

    This ruling could have been the end of the case against Microsoft, but the ongoing investigation by the government had uncovered the grounds for another antitrust lawsuit, based on claims of a monopoly in the PC operating system market and leveraging of that monopoly.

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