Company that sought to control Google search results is a no-show in US court

Einstein gets ready to do a search on Google Canada. (credit: Photo by Carlos Osorio/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Earlier this year, a small Vancouver software firm called Equustek earned an extraordinary legal win against Google. The Supreme Court of Canada ordered the search giant to de-index all pages from a former Equustek distributor-not just in Canada, but worldwide.

Google's response to that was to file a lawsuit in US federal court asking a judge to rule that the Canadian order is unenforceable in its home country. Google called the Canadian order "repugnant" to the First Amendment, and it pointed out that the Canadian plaintiffs "never established any violation of their rights under US law."

It looks like Google is going to win that case, but not as a result of any high-minded legal arguments. Its opponent simply failed to show up. In a motion (PDF) filed Tuesday, Google said that Equustek CEO Robert Angus faxed Google's lawyers a letter "stating that Defendants would not be defending this action."

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments