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.
The move leaves standing a lower court ruling that says Novell can sue Microsoft under federal antitrust laws. Novell argued that Microsoft used its monopoly power to sink Novell's QuattroPro spreadsheet and WordPerfect word processor.
The court had no comment and Chief Justice John Roberts abstained because he is a Microsoft shareholder, according to the Associated Press.
"Microsoft specifically targeted WordPerfect and Novell's other office productivity applications because they threatened Microsoft's Windows monopoly," according to the Novell court filing quoted by the Bloomberg news service.
In its case, Novell also said that Microsoft withheld technical information to make WordPerfect work with Windows 95.
In its appeal, Microsoft argued that federal antitrust laws don't apply to the case because Novell does not compete in operating systems.
View: news.com
The move leaves standing a lower court ruling that says Novell can sue Microsoft under federal antitrust laws. Novell argued that Microsoft used its monopoly power to sink Novell's QuattroPro spreadsheet and WordPerfect word processor.
The court had no comment and Chief Justice John Roberts abstained because he is a Microsoft shareholder, according to the Associated Press.
"Microsoft specifically targeted WordPerfect and Novell's other office productivity applications because they threatened Microsoft's Windows monopoly," according to the Novell court filing quoted by the Bloomberg news service.
In its case, Novell also said that Microsoft withheld technical information to make WordPerfect work with Windows 95.
In its appeal, Microsoft argued that federal antitrust laws don't apply to the case because Novell does not compete in operating systems.
View: news.com
We sure have some smart people in the judicial system, don't we? Novell's terrible office software was in no way a threat to Microsoft's operating system much like Office 2007 doesn't really threaten Mac OS X.
I can't wait to see Novell fall flat on their face. Again.
ROFL. Smarter than you, if that's what you really think the case is about. You do realize you've got the whole case backwards? Microsoft used its OS to monopoly to sideline Novell's office products by strong-arming OEMs into not offering it as an option. Furthermore, MS offered Windows-Office bundles to OEMs that made competition even more difficult. That's not even mentioning how MS ties its other products to Windows to gain a performance advantage over competitors and make it difficult to remove those bundled MS apps/services.
Go study the case a little more and you'll see that MS is guilty as hell. I don't think this is even the last time MS will be sued. It's got more on the way, for what it continues to do with Vista-Live-Silverlight and the rest of the crap its trying to shovel onto the market through its monopoly.
Why is it that MS is unable to work with open standards LIKE EVERYONE ELSE IN THE INDUSTRY IS DOING and insists on making MS knockoffs over everyone else's SUPERIOR products? MS is always late to the party, and then it thinks it has a right to take over. MS treats its customers like ****!
No, but they produced software for their OS and Novell alleges that MS withheld API info. What does competing with the OS have to do with it?
No, but they produced software for their OS and Novell alleges that MS withheld API info. What does competing with the OS have to do with it?
I thought Novell did have a competeing OS... It was a Network OS... heck we had novell OS's on servers here for years... it ran as a text system... it was in direct competition with windows NT Server
No, but we can spot a moron.
Microsoft didn't answer
Sorry you got that, Windows is the one that does the knicking from Apple, so we could easily see bye. And to be honest, all the IT jobs would continue, they would just shift to supporting OSX/UNIX/Linux, no change whatsoever
I thought we already hit rock-bottom with Vista and MS Office bloatware.
Where have you been? Apple is the one that is universally acknowledged for its software quality. Time to visit an Apple Store, Iridium . . . c'mon you KNOW you want to.
...and your money.
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