Microsoft Complains About Harassment

Microsoft Corp., mounting a bare-knuckles counterattack, asked a federal judge to block the Justice Department’s demand for more information about the company’s plan to package software for a new on-line service as part of its Windows 95 personal computer operating system.

Complaining about the “latest salvo in what increasingly appears to be a campaign of harassment directed against Microsoft,” the software industry leader said federal antitrust investigators last week issued an impossible deadline for answers to a sweeping request for documents about the company’s business plans.

Filed in a New York federal court, Microsoft’s bluntly worded petition marks the latest round in what has been an increasingly bitter fight between the personal computer software industry giant and top federal antitrust officials.

The battle seems to be heating up, as federal trustbusters race to gather information about Windows 95 in time to act before Microsoft’s planned Aug. 24 release of the new operating system software.

In court papers, Microsoft charged that, after various federal antitrust probes that have lasted more than five years, the Justice Department “seems to be doing its level best to hinder Microsoft’s efforts” to expand into on-line services.