Judge Throws Out Half of Novell-MS Suit

Novell suffered a slight setback in its antitrust case against Microsoft as half of its lawsuit was thrown out last Friday, according to court documents released Monday. However, U.S. District Court Judge Frederick Motz let stand several key charges accusing Microsoft of harming Novells business through monopolistic practices.

Novell has based its case on the Department of Justice suit that Microsoft settled in 2002. Judge Motz said that Novells charges relating to the abuse of monopolies in word processing and spreadsheet applications would not be allowed in the court, because the allegations were not part of the original DOJ case.

But Motz did let the rest of the charges stand, which include two counts related to Microsofts alleged attempts to sabotage the marketing of Novells word processing and spreadsheet applications, WordPerfect and Quattro Pro. Microsoft attempted to have these counts dismissed since Novell no longer owns the rights to either product, but the motion was denied.

The remaining two counts deal with Microsofts marketing tactics with manufacturers and illegal use of its power in the operating system market.

Critics have accused Novell of being sue-happy, especially considering that its lawsuit was filed just days after it had settled with Microsoft for actions against Novells NetWare product. Microsoft paid Novell $536 million to end the legal action.

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