Microsoft News Tracker

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly needed more time to consider all the various filings for and against continued US antitrust oversight of Microsoft and so all parties have agreed to temporary extension to January 31, 2008:

Microsoft, state prosecutors, and the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday said a federal judge needs more time to weigh whether Redmond should be subjected to a lengthier period of antitrust policing.

In a joint filing with U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who has been overseeing Microsoft’s antitrust compliance, they asked for a soon-to-expire oversight period to be temporarily extended until at latest January 31, 2008. That way, the judge will have more time to weigh the merits of last-minute pleas from a number of state prosecutors to add another five years to the oversight regime.

Right now, most of Microsoft’s 2002 consent decree with the Bush administration is set to expire November 12. One small portion, related to a communications protocol licensing program that has encountered numerous delays since its inception, has already been extended through November 2009.

This is all procedural and “without prejudice” meaning that the temporary extension in no way implies that the five year extension is needed.