Zango Loses TRO Motion Against PC Tools But Claims Win

June 5, 2007 · by · in Adware/Spyware

By Eric Goldman

Zango, Inc. v. PC Tools Pty Ltd., C07-0797-JCC (W. D. Wash. TRO denied June 5, 2007)

The judge denied Zango’s TRO request against PC Tools. The actual opinion is efficient and somewhat non-committal, as befits an opinion written quickly in response to a TRO request. However, the court’s opinion reflected that it was aware of Zango’s historical practices and understood the public benefit from giving space for anti-spyware tools to do their thing. Venkat’s take: “This Order would make me reconsider if I were Zango.”

Despite the TRO loss, Zango claims this as a “victory for consumer choice” because the lawsuit caused PC Tools to substantially change its categorization of Zango, giving Zango the results it sought anyway.

Regardless of these developments, I’m failry confident this story isn’t over. I suspect PC Tools and Zango will have continued categorization spats in the future. And, the lawsuit against Kaspersky is still pending, so perhaps that will give us some more useful insights into this legal area.