Judge Rebuffs Google's Microsoft Complaint

[Sunite]

Judge Rebuffs Google's Microsoft Complaint
By Jennifer LeClaire
June 27, 2007 10:33AM

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In Google's latest battle with Microsoft, the court has decided to leave open the search king's request that the expiration date on the original antitrust judgment against Microsoft be extended beyond this November. Judge Kollar-Kotelly made it clear that it was not Google's place to seek a remedy, even if Microsoft fails to comply.

Related Topics
   Windows
   Vista
   Google
   Microsoft
   Desktop Search
   Antitrust

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   Score one for Microsoft Relevant Products/Services in its battle with Google. Google's complaints about its rival's practices failed to move the judge who is overseeing Microsoft's antitrust agreement with federal and state governments.

On Tuesday, Federal District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said she would not rule on a complaint Google filed about Vista's search features. The judge has decided to leave the matter in the hands of government lawyers.

At issue are the changes Microsoft agreed to make to Windows Vista last week to address Google's concerns. Google feared users of the operating system would be discouraged from using competing desktop search tools -- namely its own. Although Google wasn't satisfied with the proposed changes, lawyers representing federal and state governments were content with Microsoft's move to make other desktop search tools more interchangeable with their own.

Under the proposed solution, Microsoft will provide users and original equipment manufacturers, such as HP and Dell, with greater flexibility to choose and access competing desktop search products. Microsoft has promised to deliver the required changes in the Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista, which Microsoft currently anticipates will be available by the end of the year.

Google Stands Alone

California Attorney General Edmund Brown, Jr. helped lead the charge against Microsoft in the Vista desktop search case, citing concerns over the company's compliance with a 2002 antitrust final judgment. The California AG bought Google's argument that desktop search in Windows Vista is a "Microsoft Middleware Product" and is therefore subject to the antitrust ruling. The state contended that Vista's desktop search feature did not exist in prior Windows operating systems and is therefore covered under the final judgment.

When Microsoft agreed to make changes in the design of its desktop search feature in Vista last week, Brown said the agreement wasn't perfect, but called it a "positive step towards greater competition in the software industry." If Google plans to continue its battle over desktop search in Vista, it will fight without the support of the California AG's office, which has been a powerful ally with its long-held stance that Microsoft did not do enough to ensure fair marketplace competition.

In Google's latest battle with Redmond, the court has decided to leave open the search king's request that the expiration date on the original antitrust judgment be extended beyond this November. Judge Kollar-Kotelly, however, made it clear that it was not Google's place to seek a remedy, even if Microsoft fails to comply. Rather, government lawyers would have to seek the extension.

Google Out of Its Element?

Even as the story of Google's recent failure unfolds, the Justice Department is reviewing the search firm's announced acquisition of DoubleClick. Although Google could not immediately be reached for comment on its plans going forward, legal experts say the company's options are not exhausted.

Google wants to have as little competition as possible, noted Peter Vogel of the Dallas office of Gardere Wynne Sewell, where he is the cochair of the Internet and Computer Technology practice group.

"Google could file a private antitrust suit against Microsoft," said Vogel, who also serves as chair of the Texas Supreme Court Judicial Committee on Information Technology. Vogel says the question is whether Google, which is a search engine giant, be able to exercise control over what Microsoft is doing in Office software products and database Relevant Products/Services markets. "It doesn't make any sense."