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November 21, 2011 in Business, Nation/World
Gates testifies in $1 billion lawsuit against Microsoft
SALT LAKE CITY — Billionaire Bill Gates envisioned a computer in every home in America, and he wanted to be the one who put them there, the Microsoft Corp. co-founder testified today in a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit filed against the software maker by the creator of then-rival WordPerfect.
Gates took the witness stand in a case that accuses Microsoft of duping its competitor prior to the rollout of Windows 95. He began his testimony with a history of Microsoft and was expected to remain on the stand throughout the day.
Gates said he was just 19 when he helped found the software giant.
“We thought everybody would have a personal computer on every desk and in every home,” he said. “We wanted to be there and be the first.”
Gates, wearing a gray suit and a yellow tie, was the first witness to testify Monday as Microsoft lawyers presented their case in the trial that’s been ongoing in federal court in Salt Lake City for about a month.
Utah-based Novell Inc. sued Microsoft in 2004, claiming the Redmond, Wash., company violated U.S. antitrust laws through its arrangements with other computer makers when it launched Windows 95. Novell says it was later forced to sell WordPerfect for a $1.2 billion loss. Corel now owns it.
The company argues that Gates ordered company engineers to reject WordPerfect as a Windows 95 word processing application because he feared it was too good. WordPerfect once had nearly 50 percent of the market for computer writing programs, but its share quickly plummeted to less than 10 percent as Microsoft’s own office programs took hold.
Novell attorney Jeff Johnson has conceded that Microsoft was under no legal obligation to provide advance access to the Windows 95 operating system so Novell could prepare a compatible WordPerfect version. Microsoft, however, enticed Novell to work on a version, only to withdraw support months before Windows 95 hit the market, he said.
Microsoft lawyer David Tulchin said Gates decided against installing WordPerfect because it threatened to crash Windows and couldn’t be fixed in time for the rollout. He argued that Novell’s missed opportunity was its own fault, and that Microsoft had no obligation to give a competitor a leg up.
“Novell never complained to Microsoft,” Tulchin said during arguments Friday. “There’s nothing in the evidence, no documents.”
Johnson maintains Novell was tricked in violation of federal antitrust laws so Microsoft could monopolize the market.
“We got stabbed in the back,” he said.
Microsoft is seeking a dismissal, calling the claims groundless.
Throughout arguments Friday, U.S. District Judge Frederick Motz openly expressed doubts that Novell’s claims had merit.
“I don’t see why I have to give a product to a competitor so he can beat me,” Motz told Novell attorneys.
© Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Seven firms or nonprofits win Agora Awards 
The_Seer on November 21 at 9:13 a.m.
I remember installing Wordperfect on a Windows 95 PC around 1996. Big mistake. Totally fried the hard drive. I went out and bought a Mac and never looked back.
I recently read some excerpts from a soon-to-be-released biography about Steve Jobs. Jobs doesn’t have much good to say about Gates and claims he’s stolen every idea that made him wealthy. This case was filed seven years ago and has finally reached courts so people shouldn’t be surprised by how long it has taken for Otto’s case to reach a trial. If you are the one with money and power, justice can move as swiftly or as slowly as you decide.
johnclarke on November 21 at 9:59 a.m.
Jobs doesn’t have much good to say about Gates and claims he’s stolen every idea that made him wealthy
That’s rich. Jobs lifted all of his “original” products from Xerox. Then when Apple was close to going down he went to Gates for money. Although I’m sorry Jobs passed on, he was not all that special.
PassinThru on November 21 at 10:07 a.m.
They’re both evil corporate giants, Apple and MS, stomping on the little guy. They make me so mad.
misjustice on November 21 at 10:15 a.m.
Bill Gates is the devil!
; )
The_Seer on November 21 at 10:21 a.m.
jc: Jobs “lifted” the ideas of desktop icons as an interface and IBM’s crude mouse. He tweaked those into original products and the Apple OS is native to the company since day one.
johnclarke on November 21 at 10:37 a.m.
http://inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/Apple_Computers.htm
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/10/steve-jobs-xerox-parc.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdrKWArr3XY
Um, you are aware that today’s Apple’s OS is actually UNIX right ? You are a little off target, IBM was not involved at all in Apple’s success. Xerox had this stuff laying around, but none of their executives were interested.
Listen, these guys are nothing special. Jobs was just a very talented talent thief. Microsoft’s first success was a disk operating system purchased from a guy in Denver. IBM actually had to come to Microsoft twice asking for a DOS. Finally ‘ol Gates saw the golden goose staring him in the face.
The_Seer on November 21 at 12:24 p.m.
jc: I meant Xerox, my bad.
johnclarke on November 21 at 12:48 p.m.
You are forgiven. Go in peace.
I would not deny the success of these guys - timing and luck aside. I just don’t get why Jobs had to be snarky, and now from the grave apparently. Gates totally bailed out Apple at one point.
Gates is giving away his massive fortune to worthy causes, and Buffett’s at the same time. Those liberal bastards.
IHike4Fun on November 21 at 1:00 p.m.
“Apple and MS, stomping on the little guy.” …
And who, pray tell, would the little guy be? Is there someone else out there making operating systems for personal computers?
SpokaneLiberal on November 21 at 3:02 p.m.
Hike
You checked out Linux OSes lately?
RedCedar on November 21 at 3:48 p.m.
Everybody “stole” computer ideas from others in the days before the lawyers took over the business. Sure, Apple and Windoze maybe “stole” the GUI and mouse idea from Xerox PARC, and Mac OS was maybe stolen from Berkely Unix, and Unix was so-called because it was “Multics with no balls”, and back we go until Prometheus stole fire from the gods.
The real lesson in this story is that in consumer electronics, the courts provide no redress. It apparently took WordPerfect a decade and a half between being injured and getting their day in court. Half a decade is an eternity in this business. This is basketball rather than football, light cavalry rather than the Maginot line. Even patents are really not of much use these days, despite the rush to patent every imaginable thing. What matters are “facts on the ground”, and that means selling a boatload of groovy new stuff before you competitor even knew you’d invented it.
I don’t know if Microsoft stomped on the Mormons or if he tricked them into thinking he’d left them have a piece of Win 95 and then cut their rope. It would be a moot point now were it not for the fact that MS has a pile of cash that no self-respecting lawyer could ignore. Remember all those SLC-based software companies in the ‘80 and ‘90s? What’s left of them? Maybe if they’d consolidated 20 years ago and wrapped their apps up in their own unix-based OS, they would have given MS a run for its money. Instead, the way I remember it, they kept pushing the advantages of this app or that, all by itself, when what the users really wanted, especially the big corporate ones, was one package that did everything adequately and all worked together. That’s what MS provided — adequate performance with the peace of mind of knowing that you wouldn’t get fired for making the wrong choice if you specified Win+Office.
MS may well have played dirty with WP and the rest of the Mormon bit-part software companies back then, but that’s business. It’s always a risk when you have to depend on your enemy’s benevolence. Salt Lake could have produced a third OS+Apps company like MS or Apple, but instead they stayed fragmented and ignored the OS problem until it was too late and all that was left was for the lawyers to scramble for some money amongst the wreckage.
oneanddone on November 21 at 5:27 p.m.
This is one of those cases where I sorely wish BOTH sides could lose their shirts.
@misjustice - Bill Gates IS the devil and his first lieutenant was Steve Jobs. Microsoft and Apple are charter members of the evil empire.
DDC on November 21 at 6:44 p.m.
Jobs always used the quote “good artists borrow, great artists steal”.
IMHO Gates gives his and other’s money away because, after the government sponsored demise of MS in the late ‘90’s when the Feds did the bidding for whining MS competitors (sound familiar?). That suit cost Gates and MS shareholders billions. More importantly, it broke apart one of the best tech think tanks in modern times by neutralizing the stock which was the greatest reward/incentive for the best and brightest upcoming talent.
But in an interesting twist of fate and fortune, it is now estimated that (at the current estate tax rates) Gates’ foundation has cost the Feds almost a half a trillion dollars in lost revenues…..trillion……wit a “T”. Revenge….even of the most polite nature, is sweet.
It’s a laugh to me that Buffet says “tax me…please” when he took billions off the table for the feds when he gave his money to Gates.
These guys had an abundance of raw intelligence and are (were) brilliant market strategists.