03.17.08
Quick Mention: Novell’s Case Against Microsoft Goes Ahead
I am still held back by the nuisance which was mentioned yesterday, so I haven’t much time to blog. One set of headlines worth mentioning, however, is about the Novell-Microsoft lawsuit [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. Here is the article from Bloomberg.
The U.S. Supreme Court turned away a Microsoft Corp. appeal, refusing to stop a multibillion-dollar Novell Inc. lawsuit that accuses the world’s largest software maker of undermining the market for the WordPerfect program.
The justices, without comment, today left intact a lower court decision that said Novell can sue Microsoft under federal antitrust law. Novell says Microsoft used the dominance of its Windows personal computer operating system to destroy the market for WordPerfect, the word processing program Novell owned during the mid-1990s.
For further information about this lawsuit and also some discussion in light of the Microsoft/Novell partnership see:
- Quick Mention: Novell's WordPerfect Lawsuit Against Microsoft Resurfaces
- The WordPerfect Lawsuit and the Abused Wife Called Novell
- Novell's Annual Report 2007 - Quick Analysis
- Blast from the Past: A Look Back at Microsoft's Predatory Response to Novell
- A Peephole into Novell's Past Sufferings from Microsoft
- Bill Gates and His 'Attack Groups'
- Novell Should Learn from Microsoft's Assault on WordPerfect
A recent summary about Corel (WordPerfect) you can find here. The last thing Microsoft needs at the moment are more fines. █
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[1] Microsoft,In Supreme Court Appeal, Fails To Stop Novell Suit
The U.S. Supreme Court Monday rejected a plea from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) to stop an antitrust lawsuit brought by Novell Inc. ( NOVL), which has sued over 1990s practices by Microsoft in the word processing and spreadsheet software markets.
Novell sued Microsoft in 2004 in a case that is related practices at the heart of the federal government’s landmark antitrust settlement with the computer software giant. Novell sold WordPerfect and Quattro Pro - the software products at issue in the case - to Corel Corp. (CREL) in 1996.
[2] US Supreme Court will not hear Microsoft appeal on Novell case
It’s a very quiet ending for one of the important antitrust cases in the history of the software industry, as justices were apparently satisfied that a decision in Novell’s favor on the WordPerfect matter was justified.
[3] High Court: Novell case against Microsoft can go forward
The U.S. Supreme Court denies request by Microsoft to halt an antitrust suit that Novell filed against the company for anticompetitive behavior
[4] Supremes reject Microsoft’s Novell request
The Supreme Court rejected an attempt today to throw out a claim by Novell that Microsoft tried to undermine the market for Novell’s WordPerfect in the mid-90s.
[5] U.S. Supreme Court rejects Microsoft antitrust appeal
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a Microsoft appeal to an antitrust case that dates back to Novell’s desktop PC software business in the mid-1990s.
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.