Needing more time "to address the complex issues involved", Microsoft has requested and received a deadline extension to respond to the allegations that their proposed licensing terms are unreasonable, since the information Microsoft has to provide rivals as part of this ruling include "no significant innovation" worthy of high fees.

Microsoft Corp. now has until April 23 to respond to EU charges that it fails to offer rivals a fair deal on licenses for communications code that helps servers work with Windows, an EU spokesman said Monday.

The European Commission originally set a four-week deadline ending April 3, threatening to start levying daily fines of euro3 million (US$4 million) a day after that.

Be on the lookout for a busy month for Novell P.R. in and around the European Union for the next month or so, touting the benefits of their deal with those pro-interoperability folks over in Redmond...