 |
|
 |
|
 |
    |
 |
|
Judge rejects part of Novell lawsuit vs. Microsoft SEATTLE (Reuters) - A federal judge has dismissed four counts in Novell Inc.'s lawsuit against Microsoft Corp., according to court documents seen on Monday. Judge Frederick Motz of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland said the software giant did not have a monopoly in the word processing and spreadsheet software markets that gave it an unfair advantage over rivals. Motz kept Novell's two other counts against Microsoft, which claim that the world's largest software maker used its Windows operating system monopoly to hurt sales of WordPerfect and Quattro Pro, applications that Novell owned briefly a decade ago. The Judge's opinion, issued late Friday, said he would let Novell base its civil case against Microsoft on the U.S. government's landmark antitrust trial against Microsoft, which was settled in 2002. Novell sued Microsoft last November, just after agreeing to a $536 million settlement with its larger rival. At the time, Novell and Microsoft resolved their larger antitrust issues over Novell's core networking software business, but said it would go to court over WordPerfect and related programs, which it owned between 1994 and 1996. Neither party could be reached immediately for comment. Microsoft claims that WordPerfect's popularity in the market had already started to decline before it was bought by Novell and that the statue of limitations had already expired over Novell's claims regarding WordPerfect. Motz said, however, that Novell could still seek damages even though it no longer owns and operates WordPerfect. WordPerfect is currently owned and developed by Corel Corp., another longtime Microsoft rival. Novell contends that WordPerfect and Quattro Pro had a combined value of $1 billion when it owned those products, but that it ended up selling those business to Corel in 1996 for $170 million. News Sourcehttp://www.microsite.reuters.com
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Are you looking for :
123webguru.com, A new web division of Microsec
Technologies Ltd. |
|
|
123webguru News Desk
