Ballmer: 'Symantec can't stop Vista'

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Symantec's latest lawsuit against his firm could not stop Vista's market launch.

When asked if Microsoft's copyright lawsuit will affect the launch of Windows Vista, Ballmer said: ' I don't want to say anything, let the court decide .'

Last week, Symantec sued Microsoft, accusing it of illegally using its business secrets in Windows Vista. Symantec wants Microsoft to stop developing, trading and disseminating Vista and other products until Symantec's intellectual property rights are removed.

The lawsuit was filed in a federal court in the city of Seattle (USA), alleging that Microsoft violated the terms of the contract using Veritas Volume Manager.

It can be considered as the latest hit on Microsoft and Windows Vista when the developer had to decide to delay the operating system's release date from March this year until January 2007.

Ballmer's chief executive said that Microsoft delayed the launch of Vista because it put too much ambition on the latest version of the Windows operating system.

' We have tried to put too many new inventions into Vista. This seems to have surpassed the current software development . '

In response to a question about Vista's delay, Ballmer said: ' I am the CEO and I am responsible for this issue. '

Hoang Dung