Steve Ballmer

Microsoft has lost its bid to keep CEO Steve Ballmer from being deposed in the lawsuit over the company's "Windows Vista Capable" marketing program. U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman ruled this afternoon that the plaintiffs had demonstrated that Ballmer has  enough "unique personal knowledge" of the situation to justify quizzing him as part of the discovery process.

Read the order here: PDF, 5 pages. The company had argued that Ballmer wasn't directly involved in the decisions about the marketing program, having delegated those responsibilities to top Windows executives.

Pechman limited the deposition to three hours, ordering it to take place within the next 30 days. "The Court appreciates that there are severe demands on Mr. Ballmer’s time; however, a busy schedule cannot 'shield' an executive from discovery," the judge wrote.

Microsoft issued this statement on the judge's decision: “We will of course comply with the court’s order.  Mr. Ballmer’s knowledge about the Windows Vista Capable program comes from the executives he empowered to run the program and make decisions, and two of those executives already testified in this case.”

The lawsuit alleges that Microsoft's marketing program wrongly gave the Windows Vista Capable label to computers that couldn't run the operating system's trademark features, such as the fancy Aero Glass interface. Microsoft yesterday filed motions seeking to end the case, arguing that the plaintiffs haven't proven the price-inflation theory at the core of the suit.