BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – Microsoft Corp. has filed a second appeal seeking annulment of a European Union decision which ordered the company to share code with open-source companies and software developers, company officials announced today.According to Microsoft spokesman Tom Brookes, the new appeal submitted to second-highest court in the EU came as a result of a June agreement with the EU head office to decide the source-code issue in the courts.

“Microsoft has filed an application for annulment with the Court of First Instance specifically concerning the issue of broad licenses in source code form of communications protocols which are based upon Microsoft’s intellectual property,” Brookes said. “We are taking this step so the court can begin its review now of this issue, given its far-reaching implications for the protection of our intellectual property rights around the world.”

Jonathan Todd, spokesman for the EU, said the interoperability protocols of Microsoft software were not eligible for intellectual property protection, and should be circulated among open-source companies in accord with their usual business licenses.

The EU’s executive European Commission said it believed the matter would be settled if the Luxembourg-based Court of First Instance upholds the March 2004 ruling against the company.

The ruling from last March held that Microsoft had failed to provide to rivals information that they needed to compete fairly in the market for server software, and that the company has been offering Windows on the condition that it come bundled with Windows Media Player, thereby stifling competition.

Todd said the EU was aware that Microsoft did not see eye to eye with the EC on the prospect of sharing the protocols with open-source firms. “If they do not share our point of view, they are of course free to go back to the court if they want to, which is what they’ve done,” Todd said.

A date has not yet been set for Microsoft’s first appeal, which is in response to the EU’s order for the company to pay 497 million euros ($620.41 million), Europe’s largest antitrust fine to date.