Microsoft Corp has agreed to do more to help rivals compete after antitrust enforcers complained a key piece of their landmark settlement with the company has "fallen short," the US Justice Department said on Friday.
Microsoft has pledged to make it simpler and easier for competitors to licence the computer code needed to make server software work properly with its Windows operating system, the department said in a report to a federal judge on the 2002 settlement.
The Justice Department said it might seek even more changes later, noting that it "cannot foresee with confidence that the improvements will be sufficient."
Six new complaints against Microsoft and a handful of older complaints, received since the settlement went into effect, are under investigation, the report said.
The department was "concerned that the current licensing program has thus far fallen short of fully satisfying the goals of (the settlement)."
To date, 11 companies have signed licences for the Windows computer code, known as protocols. But the department said most have been for development of niche products that are "not likely to spur the emergence in the marketplace of broad competitors to the Windows desktop".
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