Microsoft loses bid for IBM documents

BRUSSELS — A U.S. court in New York on Thursday quashed a Microsoft Corp. subpoena for International Business Machines Corp.’s documents related to the software company’s European anti-trust case.

Judge Colleen McMahon said Microsoft’s subpoena amounted to a “blatant end run” on the European Commission’s authority. The judge said that the Brussels-based regulator strongly opposed Microsoft’s request, and that enforcing such a subpoena could harm U.S. sovereignty if a foreign court were used to obtain documents in a U.S. proceeding.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft says the commission is colluding with Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM and other rivals, and denying the company a fair chance to review key evidence. The regulator has refused to give Microsoft access to some documents, citing confidentiality concerns and rivals’ “fear of retaliation,” according to a Boston court ruling earlier this week in which a judge quashed a similar Microsoft request for documents held by Novell Inc.