Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) was dealt another court victory today from everyone's favorite alliteratively named judge, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. She decreed that two industry groups unhappy with Microsoft's antitrust settlement haven't the legal grounds to appeal it.

The Software and Information Industry Association and the Computer & Communications Industry Association filed friend-of-the-court briefs in December hoping for the right to appeal Microsoft's settlement with the government. Kollar-Kotelly squashed that desire today, though she did tell the two groups that if they wanted to pursue the matter further, they could file private lawsuits.

Several technology and software companies that have a great interest in getting tougher sanctions against Microsoft are members of the two associations. AOL Time Warner(NYSE: AOL) is a member of both groups, as are Oracle(Nasdaq: ORCL) and Sun Microsystems(Nasdaq: SUNW). Sun has its own private antitrust lawsuit still pending against Microsoft, and Kollar-Kotelly referenced it as an example of a legally acceptable private case. The associations could file private suits, or individual members could do so.

Whether or not further lawsuits are imminent isn't clear. Neither association had any comment yet on the ruling.

Microsoft's legal headaches aren't completely gone, however. Massachusetts and West Virginia still want tougher penalties against the company, and the Sun suit is ongoing. Plus, antitrust action against Microsoft in Europe remains outstanding, with the two trade groups mentioned here lobbying for strict treatment of the software giant.

For its part, Microsoft had no comment on today's news, choosing instead to focus on (of all things) running its business and preparing for its earnings release this Thursday.