11.   Arguments on Tuesday, which focused on whether copyright law might offer Microsoft some protection from antitrust regulations, did not seem to go well for the software giant.

12.   As part of that process, the software giant has been forced to steadily hand over to the Justice Department its confidential product plans.

13.   Attorneys for the Redmond software giant at one point even threatened to try to get Sporkin thrown off the case.

14.   Bill Gates, founder of the Redmond software giant, realized that in order to continue its phenomenal growth, Microsoft had to develop new revenue streams.

15.   Both companies are headed in the same direction, though from different starting points, one a software giant, the other an online service.

16.   A federal judge recently ruled that the software giant violated antitrust laws.

17.   A fellow billionaire, Lawrence Ellison, chairman of the Oracle Corp., another software giant, is also a college dropout.

18.   A novel lawsuit filed Tuesday by AOL Time Warner against Microsoft Corp. could be the first of several corporate claims against the software giant, one law professor said.

19.   A Microsoft spokeswoman said the software giant closed its e-mail servers for precautionary reasons a few hours yesterday morning.

20.   After the market closed, the software giant reported earnings for its third quarter that were better than expected.