Supreme Court Declines Microsoft Antitrust Appeal
The U.S. Supreme court has turned down an appeal by Microsoft Corp. that seeks to halt a multibillion-dollar lawsuit contending it “deliberately targeted and destroyed” a competitor’s word-processing program to protect its Windows operating system monopoly.
Novell Inc. claims Microsoft targeted its WordPerfect program and other office productivity applications because they run on alternative operating systems, Bloomberg and the Associated Press report. The suit alleges Microsoft withheld technical information needed to adapt the programs to Microsoft’s Windows 95.
Microsoft had contended Novell couldn’t sue because it didn’t compete with Microsoft in the market for operating systems. The Richmond, Va.-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled the lawsuit could proceed under federal antitrust law.
