On August 27, 2004, Townsend and Townsend and Crew filed a class action complaint against Microsoft in
San Francisco Superior Court on behalf of all "government entities," a class of consumers that had been
excluded from a prior private consumer class action that settled in January 2003 for $1.1 billion in
benefits to the class. This complaint on behalf of all California government entities alleges essentially
the same violations as were alleged in the private consumer action — i.e., that Microsoft monopolized the
worldwide personal computer markets for operating system software and word processing and spreadsheet
application software in violation of California's antitrust and unfair competition laws. We seek to
recover overcharge damages sustained by all entities of the State of California as a result of Microsoft's
illegal monopolization of three computer software markets.
On September 27, 2004, Microsoft removed the case from San Francisco Superior Court to the United States
District Court for the Northern District of California. Subsequently, the case was transferred to the
United States District Court for the District of Maryland pursuant to "multi-district litigation" ("MDL")
procedures.
By clicking on the links to the right, you will be able to access major pleadings filed on behalf of the
government class or by Microsoft, orders issued by the Court, status reports from Townsend as Lead Counsel,
and various other documents we hope will prove helpful to your understanding of the case and its status.
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