Google VS The USA
posted Thursday Nov 4, 2010 by Scott Ertz
We have done a lot of legal stories here on The UpStream but none quite as interesting as this one. Google has sued the United States Government. Now, we know Google is not afraid to take on a government, but they don't usually go after the country they operate out of.
Why has Google sued the US government? It's because they are offended by one of the stipulations in a contract that they are bidding for with the Department of the Interior.
What stipulation has them so mad they are suing? Hit the break to find out.
The Department of the Interior is looking for a large corporation to manage the messaging system for the 88,000 employees. Seems like a pretty good contract to get, unless you're Google and the requirement is that the system be running Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite-Federal (BPOS-Federal).
Google's problem here is two-fold. First, even if they get the contract, Microsoft is still the winner. Microsoft will be selling their BPOS-Federal system to the DOI no matter who wins. Second, the software is still new. In fact, no government agency has approved it as secure yet and the DOI would be the first agency to implement the system completely.
Why do they want it? The DOI said in a statement,
Based on extensive market research, the Department determined that although many companies can provide messaging services in general, they either cannot provide services that address the complexity of messaging requirements within DOI, or they could not meet the degree of security required by DOI.
Looks like Google has another long legal battle ahead of them here.
