Alphabet’s Google and the United States Justice Department have been unsuccessful to reach an agreement over a protective order for 3rd parties such as Microsoft that delivered information to the government for its lawsuit against Google.
The search giant is currently pressing for 2 in-house attorneys to have access to the private data while the Justice Department and state attorneys general involved in the lawsuit have not agreed.
It stated it needed the data to prepare an effective defense. It delivered to make sure that any intimate information would be made accessible solely to 2 in-house attorneys at the offices of the search giant’s outside counsel or in another secure way, adding that it will punctually report any revelation.
The government has said in a different filing that letting the company’s staff attorneys review tactical plans related to competing voice assistants, and other commercially delicate information was dangerous as they could ill use the data to squash possible competition.
The government further said that extremely confidential files in the last big tech antitrust case, which involved Microsoft about 20yrs ago, were only offered to the company’s outside counsel.
The firms whose documents are in dispute in the Google case also contained Oracle, AT&T, Amazon.com, Comcast, etc. They have up until next Friday to make their proposals for the protective order’s terms.
