The Justice Department is seeking to extend the term of its landmark antitrust settlement with Microsoft by two years, blaming Microsoft"s slowness in providing technical documentation to rivals.
In a statement released Friday, the Justice Department said that it wants to extend the final judgment in the case, set to expire in the fall of 2007, until 2009. It said that Microsoft has agreed to the two-year extension of the program, under which it licenses its Windows communications protocols.
The department made its request as part of its regular status report to U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who is overseeing the case. "The Department of Justice is committed to full and vigorous enforcement of the Microsoft final judgment," J. Bruce McDonald, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, said in the statement. "This extension will ensure that companies interested in licensing the communications protocols receive the benefit of complete and accurate documentation for the full period of time provided by the court"s final judgment."