The judge responsible for enforcing Microsoft's antitrust settlement with federal and state governments has agreed to a delay – possibly until the end of January – to give her time to consider whether or not to extend court oversight of the company for another five years.
Microsoft and the attorneys general of 17 states plus the District of Columbia submitted a joint request on Tuesday asking for more time for filings as well as for U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to consider the arguments.
Document: Microsofts Opposition to Bristols MPI, 9/25/98.::
the September 1997 expiration date, Microsoft and Bristol began negotiating a projected ship date at this time, and is expected to be delayed well into 1999
http://www.techlawjournal.com/courts/bristol/80925.htmHOME |
The judge agreed.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) and Microsoft have already argued that most of the consent decree's oversight should be allowed to lapse as of November 12. Microsoft agreed to settle the landmark suit in 2002, after another federal judge found the company was in violation of U.S. antitrust laws.
Last year, Microsoft agreed to extend one portion of the oversight – regarding communications protocols licensing – until 2009.
Oversight of much of the rest of the settlement was set to expire next month but recently one group of states, followed by another, petitioned for the five-year extension. Their main argument is that the sanctions and supervision of Microsoft over the past five years have not yet sufficiently evened the playing field in several key markets, including those for browsers and media players.
Microsoft Watch - Server - Microsoft Gets Hyper About Virtualization::
Windows Server Delayed, Again, Microsoft Watch, Aug. 29, 2007 Opera files antitrust complaint with the EU registration-expiration: 25-Jul-2008. nserver:
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/server/microsoft_gets_hype?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535HOME |
The Courts extension of the Expiring Provisions does not include ::
November 12, 2012, five years beyond their original expiration date. the Court, that Microsoft is culpable for this inexcusable delay. To be sure, the delay has
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/download/legal/ConsentDecree/0sentDecreeExecSummary.pdfHOME |
The first group of complaining states, referred to as the "California Group," includes California, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. The second group is a splinter group of what has been called the "New York" group, and includes New York, Maryland, Louisiana and Florida.
Another seven states who signed onto the request for further consideration time—but have not filed briefs opposing expiration of the consent decree—include Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Utah, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
Judge Kollar-Kotelly's decision means that she has until January 31, 2008, to decide whether oversight should continue or not.
The mid-November lapse of most oversight, supported by the DoJ and several states, seemed like a done deal until June when search giant Google complained that Microsoft's Windows Vista was unfairly blocking its desktop search engine from being easily used in place of Vista's own desktop search feature.
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA::
compliance with the antitrust laws. Having served its time under the Final Judgments, Microsoft innovation, the delay actually resulted from a substantial
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/download/legal/settlementproceemoranduminOpposition.pdfHOME |
Joint Status Report on Microsofts Compliance with the Final Judgments ::
Virginia will release Microsoft from antitrust liability for conduct prior to December 31, 2002. Court, to account for Microsofts delayed implementation.
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f201100/201135.pdfHOME |
Microsoft finally agreed to make it easier for users to choose Google desktop search as their default search engine and that support will be included as part of the pending Vista Service Pack 1, which is currently in beta testing. However, Google continued to complain that Microsoft still hadn't gone far enough. In September, Judge Kollar-Kotelly agreed to accept a Google filing as a friend of the court brief.
In mid-October, the California Group of states filed a formal request for oversight be extended to 2012. The next day, in a surprise move, New York and the other three splinter states also jumped on the bandwagon requesting the extension.
The judge had planned to hold a status hearing on November 6 but now that's not going to happen either.
"Microsoft now has until November 6 to submit its formal response to the motions to extend," said a statement e-mailed to InternetNews.com by Microsoft legal spokesperson Jack Evans. "The DoJ, which filed a brief on Friday stating that the decree should not be extended, has until November 9 to file its brief explaining why it’s taken that position, while the states seeking an extension have until November 16 to file their reply brief," Evans' statement continued.
The judge will then decide whether or not to hold another hearing.
Microsoft recently lost its appeal of the European Commission's 2004 decision that it violated antitrust laws in the European Union (EU). Following that loss, the company dropped further appeals in the EU, and also dropped a similar appeal of an antitrust ruling against it in South Korea.
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