Novell's antitrust suit against Microsoft

Posted by Mark Smith On Saturday, May 7th 2011 in Technology

After the U.S. District Court in Maryland dismissed in 2010 the last two antitrust claims Novell filed against in Microsoft involving WordPerfect and Quattro Pro, two software products Novell owned between 1994 and 1996, the company stated they would not back down and planned to file an appeal. “’Although the underlying lawsuit involves complex issues of antitrust law, the primary question before us is one of contract interpretation: whether a 1996 contract between Novell and a third company divested Novell of its right to bring the present claim,’ Judge Allyson Duncan wrote in the 2-1 decision.” reported Bloomberg on May 3 after a U.S. court mentioned that the appeal may be considered.

One of the antitrust claims has already been settled in 2004. It involved Netware and was settled for $536 million. However Novell did not wish to settle with Microsoft on the WordPerfect and Quattro Pro products at that time. Novell claimed Microsoft withheld interoperability information it needed to enable those products to run well on Windows. Microsoft tried to get Novell’s complaint dismissed, claiming that it was Novell’s “own mismanagement and poor business decisions” that tanked WordPerfect and Quattro Pro.

Although four of Novell’s claims have been dismissed, two of them managed to go forward. “We are disappointed with the Fourth’s Circuit’s decision to reverse in part the district court’s summary judgment ruling which dismissed these very old claims, although we are pleased that at this point only one part of one of Novell’s claims remains.” said Kevin Kutz, a spokesperson for Microsoft.