Microsoft seems to have really upset its enemies and now it has to endure the consequences. Nine states and the District of Columbia has been recently joined by another state, Maryland, for asking the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to extend with another five years period its oversight of Microsoft Corp., which has started about five years ago as part of a landmark antitrust settlement. But, as the first term is to expire the month to come, the states have got worried and filed this new suit against the most famous and largest software maker from all over the world.

Unfortunately, it seems that the larger and the more famous Microsoft Corp. is, the more the states have joined forces for defeating it. Maryland, California, Louisiana, New York, Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas and Massachusetts have all filed the suit on Thursday in the United States’ District Court for the District of Columbia, in which they have called Microsoft Corp. “an entrenched monopolist” and have asked for more oversight so that the market challengers could gain competitive footing.

Microsoft has been previously filed against an antitrust lawsuit in 1998, when the company has been eventually found guilty of illegally maintained a monopoly; it has been ordered to refrain from specific anti-competitive behavior and it is under the court’s supervision till mid-November 2007. But Microsoft still has 90 percent of the market share, which has made these states to file another lawsuit.

"Microsoft has worked hard to implement the decree's requirements and has changed its practices as a result. We also have committed to a broad set of operating principles going forward that go beyond the scope of the decree.” – has said David Bowermaster, Microsoft’s spokesman. We shall see next week whether the court will agree on that.