A Chapter Closed on Microsoft Lawsuits

Microsoft recently announced two major settlement agreements putting to rest disputes with Novell Inc and the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), a Washington-based trade group whose members include Oracle, Red Hat and Sun Microsystems. As part of the settlement agreements, Novell and the CCIA both agreed to end their participation in the European Union antitrust case against Microsoft. The CCIA also agreed to not ask the US Supreme Court to review the 2001 antitrust settlement deal with the US Justice Department. For its part, among other things, Microsoft agreed to become a member of the CCIA. Although these settlement agreements bring to an end years of disputes over Microsoft business practices, its legal battles are far from over. Microsoft still faces battles with EU antitrust regulators, competitor RealNetworks, and a potential additional antitrust action from Novell regarding WordPerfect. Since its 2001 antitrust settlement deal with the US Justice Department, Microsoft has paid almost US$3 billion to resolve various private lawsuits, including cases with America Online and Sun Microsystems. For more information about the settlement agreement between Microsoft and the CCIA, visit: http://makeashorterlink.com/?C3DF229D9; http://makeashorterlink.com/?L6EF529D9; or http://makeashorterlink.com/?G2FF539D9. For more information about the settlement agreement between Microsoft and Novell Inc, visit: http://www.novell.com/news/press/archive/2004/11/pr04076.html; or http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/nov04/11-08NovellPR.asp. For more information about the European Competition Commission, visit: http://europa.eu.int/comm/competition/index_en.html. Summary by: Sue Diaz