A federal judge has dismissed the last legal claims by a Utah company that sued Microsoft Corp. for $1 billion over the WordPerfect writing program.
U.S. District Judge Frederick Motz ruled on Monday that Novell has no viable claims left after losing an eight-week trial against Microsoft in Salt Lake City last year.
Novell corporate counsel Jim Lundberg tells The Associated Press the company will appeal Motz’s decision to the Denver-based 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
Microsoft believes the ruling spells an end to the case. Microsoft deputy counsel David Howard says Novell never had a case and Microsoft is gratified by the dismissal.
Novell is claiming Microsoft duped it into developing WordPerfect for Windows 95 only to pull the plug so Microsoft could gain market share.