In Novell Inc. v. Microsoft Corp, District of Utah Judge J. Frederick Motz granted Microsoft’s motion for judgment on Novell’s eight-year-old claim that the software giant violated the antitrust laws by eliminating certain APIs from Windows that Novell used to run applications such as WordPerfect. The claim had gone to a jury, which was unable to return a verdict.
Judge Motz relied on the general rule that even a monopolist has no duty to cooperate with competitors. Although exceptions to that rule exist, the court held that they did not apply here because the plaintiff failed to provide evidence to show that Microsoft eliminated the API’s knowing that doing so would delay Novell’s development efforts. The court also concluded that Novell’s claim that its programs would have been significantly more successful had Microsoft not fostered incompatibility was “entirely speculative.”
A Novell spokesman said that the company planned to appeal.