Judge extends Microsoft oversight by 18 mos.
updated 04:05 pm EDT, Wed April 22, 2009
Judge Extends MS Oversight
District of Columbia Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly today extended the oversight of Microsoft's compliance with an antitrust ruling by 18 months to May 12th, 2011. The move follows a Department of Justice request for a second extension and comes supported by Judge Kollar-Kotelly after she determined that the ability to watch Microsoft's actions was in a "much better place" than when an extension was signed late last year.
The oversight was originally issued after Microsoft was ruled guilty in 2002 of abusing its Windows monopoly by withholding code from third-party developers, giving its own software an advantage in features compared to smaller rivals. Microsoft has since been required to hand out licenses and publish documentation of its programming interfaces, although the company is still allowed to charge an 0.3 percent product royalty on any information which is covered by a patent.
Code documentation has been the single largest legal issue affecting Microsoft and, in Europe, resulted in the company paying a $1.4 billion fine after European Commission officials believed the Windows developer wasn't properly following antitrust rulings.
