Trial News

Plaintiffs Requested And Have Received Documents Relating To Microsoft's Market Development Agreement

As previously reported, Plaintiffs requested and have received documents relating to Microsoft's Market Development Agreement ("MDA"), which provides discounts on the price of Windows to OEMs for achieving certain technical and marketing milestones. Plaintiffs have now completed their review of these documents and have not discovered any issues that require further investigation.

Since our prior Status Report, Microsoft has issued a clarification addressing some OEM confusion regarding the application of the MDA's "tagline" requirement to print advertisements and websites for computers sold with non-Microsoft operating systems. In response to one OEM's question, Plaintiffs confirmed that, pursuant to the MDA and this clarification letter, advertisements that mention only a non-Windows operating system (e.g. Linux) are not audited for compliance with the MDA; Microsoft represented that this was consistent with past practice.

Over the next several months, Microsoft will release the next version of its uniform OEM licensing agreements relating to Windows. Plaintiffs will review the beta versions of these agreements as they are released to OEMs; as in past licensing cycles, Plaintiffs will also review feedback on the beta agreements submitted by OEMs to Microsoft. Plaintiffs will apprise the Court of any compliance issues that arise from their ongoing monitoring of Microsoft's relationships with OEMs.

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