Since it hadn't invented the drug, Bristol couldn't get a 20-year patent -- a legal monopoly.

FORBES: Delaying tactics

Shareholders should not be allowed to hold ratepayers captive as a legal monopoly for anything other than extraordinary benefits.

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The rest of this, however, is a series of strategies to preserve extraordinary margins after the legal monopoly is gone.

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Leaders of the Atlanta Tea Party are challenging Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power over the monopoly's reluctance to increase its use of solar power, the ballooning costs of building a new nuclear power plant and even its legal right to monopoly status.

NPR: Tea Party Targeting Southern Co. Power Monopoly

If Microsoft can do that before the final verdict is delivered, the findings of fact could be expunged - and a slew of possible lawsuits from competitors, founded on the legal recognition of Microsoft as a monopoly, could be avoided.

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