A U.S. judge said Tuesday she will likely defer to an agreement on desktop search forged between Microsoft Corp. and the plaintiffs in the U.S. government's antitrust lawsuit against the software vendor, instead of responding to a complaint from rival Google Inc.
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said she relies on the plaintiffs, including the U.S. Department of Justice and several states, to suggest solutions for complaints related to a 2002 antitrust settlement governing Microsoft.
"The plaintiffs, as far as I'm concerned, stand in the shoes of the consumer," Kollar-Kotelly said during a status hearing on Microsoft's compliance with the settlement. "Google is not a party in this case."
This month, Google filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft, saying it was difficult for computer users to change the default desktop search program in Windows Vista. Google protested the proposed desktop search agreement between Microsoft and the antitrust plaintiffs, saying it didn't go far enough. Google on Monday filed a motion asking Kollar-Kotelly to extend her oversight of changes to desktop search.
Google said in a court brief filed Monday that "more may need to be done" to allow desktop search competition in Vista. But Google was pleased with Kollar-Kotelly's handling of the issue in court Tuesday, said Alan Davidson, the company's senior policy counsel.
"From the beginning, this has been about making sure that consumers have access to the widest possible choice," Davidson said. The remedies proposed in the agreement between the plaintiffs and Microsoft will ensure consumer choice, he said.
There was disagreement between the DOJ and the California group of plaintiff states about whether the Google complaint was substantial, but the plaintiffs have come together on the proposed agreement on desktop search, said Stephen Houck, a lawyer for the California group of plaintiffs.
The California group believed that Google "raised some very important issues," Houck said. Desktop search is one of a few middleware products since the 2002 antitrust settlement that has the potential to challenge a Microsoft product, he said.
"It was very important to us to protect the potential of desktop search in the final judgment," Houck added.
The search agreement will allow software vendors to register their products as alternatives for the Vista Instant Search software. The default search selected by the computer user or OEM (original equipment manufacturer) will launch whenever Vista launches a search result window, and the default search will have space in Vista's start menu.
Microsoft will also tell software vendors and OEMs that the desktop search index in Vista is designed to run in the background and give way to other search products. Microsoft will also provide technical information to allow other desktop search providers to design their products to optimize computer resources.
Microsoft doesn't believe it violated the antitrust settlement with its new search functionality in Vista, said Charles "Rick" Rule, a lawyer for Microsoft. The company improved its functionality, but didn't create a new middleware product that would be covered under the antitrust settlement, he said.
Still, Microsoft entered into the search agreement with the plaintiffs "in the spirit of cooperation," he said.
A representative of the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT), a trade group that has supported Microsoft in the antitrust case, praised Kollar-Kotelly's handling of the Google complaint. Google's complaint was "looking more and more like disingenuous PR stunt," said Jonathan Zuck, ACT's president.
Kollar-Kotelly has generally encouraged Microsoft and the plaintiffs to work out issues when they arise instead of relying on legal rulings, Zuck noted. Google had little chance of pressing forward with its complaint, he said.
"What the judge reminded us today is that there is a process and it works," Zuck said.