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Utah Judge Asked to Dismiss Case
November 18th, 2011
Salt Lake City, Utah: United States District Judge J. Frederick Motz was asked by the Microsoft Corporation to dismiss a billion-dollar antitrust lawsuit filed by Utah's Novell Incorporated.[1]
Novell Inc. blamed Microsoft for stealing the market lead that had once been ruled by the WordPerfect writing program. In arguments against Microsoft, Novell Inc. stated that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates had ordered his company's engineers to reject WordPerfect as an application for Windows 95 because he had fears that it would be too good.[1]
Based on this, Novell Inc. reported a $1.2 billion loss two years later, blaming the money loss on sales of WordPerfect dropping from controlling nearly 50 percent of the market down to 10 percent as Microsoft programs took over.[1]
Microsoft's lawyer, David Tulchin, said the Bill Gates had decided against installing the WordPerfect Program because it threatened to crash the Windows program and that the problems resulting from this crash could not be fixed in time for the Windows 95 premiere. Gates argued that Novell Inc. lost their opportunity at their own fault, and that Microsoft has no obligations to give other competitors a leg up in the industry.[1]
Judge Motz questioned Novell Inc. heavily, and stated that he did not think the network software maker had brought forth enough evidence for a jury to fairly decide a case. "Where are the letters, emails - anything?"[1] Judge Motz asked and therefore Judge Motz said he was reserving his decision.
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