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According to CNET, Marshall Phelps, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel, said that if Microsoft had negotiated sooner with the U.S. Department of Justice, it might have avoided further trouble. Microsoft has had its problems with regulators for over a decade, and in 2002, it signed a landmark settlement with the federal government that called for more stringent oversight of the company's practices. "Had Microsoft been a little quicker to give in on this, that and the other, (it) wouldn't be in the same pickle," Phelps said. Google seems to be on the same path Microsoft as it is experiencing its own regulatory problems as of late. Why can't these two companies learn from each other?

The company recently filed a complaint with a federal judge, arguing that changes Microsoft has agreed to make in its Vista operating system fall short of addressing concerns that its computer search function puts Google and other potential competitors at a disadvantage.

But Google was rebuffed, at least for now, by the federal judge presiding over Microsoft's antitrust compliance. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said she didn't plan to comment on that filing and deferred to government regulators to alert her if they decide that Microsoft does, in fact, need to make more changes than the ones they already agreed to implement.

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