After 17 months of thinking about it, 13 judges of the Court of First Instance in Switzerland are supposed to rule early Monday morning on Microsoft's closely watched appeal from the European Commission's 2004 monopoly abuse findings, sanctions and record fines.

No matter how the decision goes, it's expected to wind up being appealed to the European version of the Supreme Court, the European Court of Justice.

The EC is afraid that if it loses and the court tells it that it had no business designing software and ordering Microsoft to unbundle its Media Player from a version of Windows or threatening to basically confiscate Microsoft's interoperable protocol IP, its regulatory powers will be diminished.

Microsoft claims its right to design software the way it sees fit is on the line. Any decision is expected to resonate widely.

The final, possibly hefty, decision, however, probably won't be black and white but varying shades of gray, whose meaning has to be teased out.

If the EC wins, it will surely mean more fines for Microsoft over the protocol documentation.