Lawyers for consumers who bought Windows XP PCs in the months before Windows Vista’s release tried today to persuade a federal judge to reinstate class-action status in their lawsuit over Microsoft’s "Windows Vista Capable" marketing program.

After hearing arguments from Microsoft and the plaintiffs, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman indicated from the bench that a ruling could come early next week. The issue promises to be a turning point for the case — determining whether it includes a handful of people or potentially thousands. 

Microsoft used the "Windows Vista Capable" marketing program in late 2006 to assure buyers of Windows XP machines that they would be able to run Vista when it came out. The lawsuit alleges that Microsoft wrongly gave that label to many Windows XP computers that couldn’t run Vista’s "signature" features — leaving them unable to run the "real" Vista, the plaintiffs contend.

Microsoft says it was clear about which Windows Vista features the Windows XP machines would able to run.

Legal arguments aside, the case is best known for causing the disclosure of internal emails showing Microsoft executives complaining privately about Windows Vista, bowing to pressure from Intel to lower the requirements for the "Vista Capable" logo, and getting into hot water with H-P and others over the way the company handled Vista’s development and release.

Pechman removed the class-action status last month after determining that the plaintiffs hadn’t proven Microsoft’s marketing campaign artificially inflated PC prices. Lawyers for the plaintiffs are now asking the judge to certify the class based on two narrower groups of PC buyers.

That new certification request was the subject of today’s hearing. Microsoft told the judge that the case doesn’t merit that status because of the widely varying circumstances under which people bought the machines.

Whichever way Pechman rules on that issue, it looks as the upcoming trial in the case, set for April 13, will probably be delayed.

That’s because Jeffrey Thomas, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told the judge today that they would probably take the issue to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals if she doesn’t recertify the class. On the other hand, if the judge rules in the plaintiffs’ favor on the class certification, the procedures necessary for notifying the potential class members would also require the trial to be delayed.

Stephen Rummage, a lawyer representing Microsoft in the case, told the judge that the company is nonetheless prepared to go to trial over the claims of the six named plaintiffs. Rummage expressed confidence in the company’s prospects at trial.

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and Topaz Bridge’s new hire; Getty’s cutbacks; Amazon and Digg  

Last month, Topaz Bridge announced new funding. Now, the Bellevue software company has appointed Chris Voss — the former senior vice president of SAP America’s western region — as senior vice president of marketing. Voss spent 12 years at SAP handling accounts related to Apple, Microsoft and Nike.

iStockphoto founder Bruce Livingstone is leaving Getty Images , a move that was unrelated to layoffs of 110 people at the Seattle digital image company reported last week by Photo District News, according to News.com. Calgary, Alberta-based iStockphoto was acquired by Getty Images for $50 million in 2006.

Blockbuster struck a deal to get its streaming video service onto the TiVo, where it will go head to head with Netflix and Amazon Video on Demand. Blockbuster will also sell TiVos in its stores.

ValleyWag has an interesting proposition for Amazon.com: Buy Digg. The blog envisions an Amazon-owned Digg that "would charge Kindle users for a new service which delivers a personalized newspaper to the device — a service far quicker and simpler than the cumbersome process of going to Digg.com and scrolling through endless lists of popular headlines."

Headline of the day comes from Alley Insider: "What’s Bill Gates Eating? $24 Pan-Asian Lunch"

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and The creators of SceneIt emerge with new movie game startup  

Two of the masterminds behind the wildly popular DVD-game SceneIt? have started a new company in Seattle called Exponential Entertainment. As the first product, Dave Long and Bill Kuper are developing a Web-based movie trivia game called Hollywood Player.

The startup is already generating some positive buzz, winning the startup competition at GamesBeat 09 conference in Silicon Valley this week. VentureBeat reports that the 8-person company is trying to raise $2.5 million as it looks to introduce the movie-based game site later this year.

Screenlife — the parent company of SceneIt? — was sold to Viacom’s Paramount unit last summer for less than $100 million. At its peak, the company achieved annual revenue of about $250 million.

According to VentureBeat’s description, Exponential is trying to bring some of the same successful ideas from the DVD games and incorporate them on the Web. For example, VentureBeat says game players will be able to match-up celebrities who are connected to one other and try to piece together tiles from a movie in order to make a complete picture. It is also developing an iPhone app called Ask the Stars.

Long co-founded Screenlife in 2002 with Craig Kinzer, with Kuper joining as CTO in 2004. More on what they are up to from VentureBeat.

 

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Microsoft, Amazon and Expedia on top in March Madness  

It’s March Madness — baby. And that doesn’t only mean legendary battles on the hardwood. The folks at executive search and headhunting firm BINC are bringing the science of bracketology to the tech business, setting up a Sweet Sixteen of the best Web/software companies to work for in 2009.

So far, Seattle area companies are out in front, though Expedia is in the fight of its life with Yahoo. (At last count, it was leading by just two votes.) Microsoft appears to be cruising to a first round victory over Slide, while Amazon.com is destroying MySpace. The video commentary — where "the analysts" offer their picks — is actually quite entertaining.

Here’s just a sampling of the commentary on the Expedia-Yahoo matchup: "Expedia versus Yahoo? Talk about two companies that people couldn’t care less about."

The analysts absolutely love Amazon, saying the matchup against MySpace should be a "cake walk."

Microsoft gets kudos as well as the top seed versus Slide. "This is like Duke versus Chattanooga. Right. It is crazy. There is no chance that Slide comes out on top in this one."

BINC founder Boris Epstein says the first round voting will conclude at 5 p.m. Friday, with the second round starting at 8 a.m. If the voting holds, there could be massive battle shaping up in the second round between two Seattle tech giants: Microsoft and Amazon.com.

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