U.S. judge tells Google to work through Justice

By Peter Kaplan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal judge overseeing Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT.O) antitrust settlement said on Tuesday she would leave it up to government lawyers to determine how best to handle Google Inc.'s (GOOG.O) concerns about Microsoft's Vista operating system.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said she would rely on advice from the Justice Department and state attorneys general on Google's complaint that Vista's computer search function puts other potential rivals at a disadvantage.

"I do rely on the plaintiffs as the representative of consumers," the judge said, referring to the government.

Kollar-Kotelly, overseeing the 2002 consent decree that settled the government's antitrust case against Microsoft, said Google "is not party (to) this case" and should take its concerns about Vista to the Justice Department and the states.

Lawyers for the Justice Department and states told the judge at the settlement oversight hearing that they were satisfied with the steps Microsoft had already agreed to take.

In an agreement announced last week, Microsoft promised it would build into Vista an option to let users select a default desktop search program for personal computers running Windows.

The agreement "represents from our standpoint a reasonable solution to Google's complaint," said Steve Houck, a lawyer representing some of the states.

Google said on Monday it wanted the judge to consider a request to extend the consent decree to make sure its concerns are addressed.