The US settled with Microsoft in 2000, paving the way for Apple's rise. Now, Apple's in similar legal crosshairs.

• Prosecutors filed a new antitrust case against Apple, and Microsoft features in it prominently.
• Microsoft settled a blockbuster antitrust case in 2001. The DOJ said it paved the way for Apple's rise.
• The shadow of the Microsoft case also hangs over a Google antitrust trial, which wrapped up in the fall.

Prosecutors suing Apple in a major new antitrust case said the granddaddy of tech antitrust lawsuits — the US' 1998 case against Microsoft — gave Apple the space to grow and eventually dominate the tech industry.