Novell takes Microsoft to court in dispute over Windows 95

Novell is to begin antitrust proceedings against Microsoft today in the hope of finally settling a long-running dispute involving Windows 95, with Microsoft founder Bill Gates expected to make an appearance as a witness.

Novell alleges that Microsoft deliberately delayed releasing Windows 95 in order to harm Novell's WordPerfect application software business in the mid-1990s and to crush competition in the office applications market.

Microsoft has always argued that the delay in releasing Windows 95 was solely to give the company more time to decide on what features to include in the operating system.

The proceedings are taking place in a court in Utah and are expected to last eight weeks. Novell is seeking up to $2.5bn in compensation.

V3 contacted Novell and Microsoft for comment on the case but had received no reply ahead of publication.

The case has the added twist that Novell was acquired by Attachmate for $2.2bn in April 2011, and subsequently divided the company into two smaller units that will operate under the Suse and Novell names.

Since then Microsoft, in partnership with other firms including Apple and Oracle, announced a deal to purchase a package of old Novell patents by way of a holding company.

This led to a war of words with Google, which had declined to take part in the deal, as it accused Microsoft of plotting to disrupt the development of Android by buying up patents it could use to attack the platform.

Google is currently on the back foot against Microsoft, though, after both HTC and Samsung signed deals with the Redmond firm to use its technology in Android devices.