US: SCOTUS hands victory to Microsoft in 20-year-old dispute

An antitrust dispute that originated in the 1990s has met its end after the US Supreme Court reportedly declined to hear the case, first filed against Microsoft over allegations of harming competition with its Windows 95 operating system.

Reports say Novell first filed the suit against its rival for harming competition and making Novell’s own word-processing program, WordPerfect, less attractive to consumers because it was not entirely compatible with Windows 95.

According to Novell, Microsoft withheld software components at last-minute in the operating system’s rollout that caused difficulties in running word programs other than Microsoft’s own Microsoft Word.

The suit, first field in 1994, was rejected by the Supreme Court Monday; the justices issued their decision without comment.

Novell is now part of Wizard Parent LLC.

The dispute preceded the US Department of Justice’s high-profile antitrust suit against Microsoft, filed in 1998 on allegations the company held too much market power.

Full content: Bloomberg

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