Google Wins One Against Microsoft

Google won a key victory in a lawsuit against the US Interior Department, two months after the Web giant accused the agency of improperly favoring rival Microsoft in a contract bid to provide a new email system.

Susan Braden, a federal judge in Washington (DC), on Jan 3 issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the Interior Department from deciding to use Microsoft's email and collaboration tools for its 88,000 employees as part of the federal government's move to Web-based applications software. In an order unsealed late Jan 4 in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, Judge Braden wrote that Google had made a preliminary showing that the agency "violated the Competition in Contracting Act," which was passed in 1984 to promote "full and open competitive."