Back in 2004, Novell filed an anticompetitive lawsuit against Microsoft for allegedly duping them before Windows 95 was released.  Novell owned WordPerfect back then, and Microsoft allegedly urged them to make a compatible version for the upcoming Windows OS.  But right before the OS was released, Microsoft decided to not to include WordPerfect, leaving Novell hanging high and dry.  The case was dismissed back then.

But today, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is set to appear in Salt Lake City federal court, after the Novell law suit had been revived back in May of this year by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia.

Novell argues that WordPerfect’s shares in the word processing market fell to less than 10% in 1996 from almost 50% in 1990, and their value dropped from $1.2 billion in May 1994 to $170 million in 1996 when it was sold to Ottawa-based Corel Corp.

“Microsoft engaged in a series of anticompetitive activities, including integrating other Microsoft software products, such as its browser technologies, into Microsoft’s Windows operating system in an exclusionary manner, and entering into exclusionary agreements precluding companies” from providing services to or buying products from Microsoft’s competitors, Novell said in court papers.

Microsoft lawyer David Tulchin stated that Gates decided not to install WordPerfect in Windows 95 because it threatened to crash the OS, and that a compatible version would not make it in time for the release.  Tulchin also said that, “Novell never complained to Microsoft.  There’s nothing in the evidence, no documents.”

U.S. District Judge Frederick Motz, who handled the case originally will still be handling the case now.  He still doubts that Novell has a case stating that, “I don’t see why I have to give a product to a competitor so he can beat me.”