Class-Action Suit Over Vista

Legal engagements for Microsoft during the first quarter of 2008 include class-action status for a lawsuit over marketing for consumer versions of Windows Vista, extension of Microsoft’s antitrust restrictions in the United States for two years, and the settlement of a patent dispute with mobile e-mail service provider Visto.

(Microsoft’s record antitrust fine from the European Commission is covered in a separate article, “Ongoing EU Threat Spurs Interoperability Pledge,”.)

“Vista Capable” Suit

A judge has granted class-action status to a lawsuit alleging that Microsoft misled consumers with a marketing program that deemed computers to be “Vista Capable,” even though they lacked the hardware necessary for some features found in premium editions of Vista, such as the Aero graphics interface. Following this Feb. 2008 ruling, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman unsealed 158 pages of internal Microsoft e-mails discussing the Vista Capable program, many of which suggest the company overrode the concerns of key partners—and even some Microsoft executives—when considering whether and how to implement it. For instance, some of these e-mails reveal that OEMs and retailers expressed strong reservations about the Vista Capable program, fearing that it would confuse customers and undercut efforts to use the Vista launch to sell high-end hardware.