SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Microsoft’s Bill Gates is set to testify in a billion-dollar antitrust lawsuit accusing the software maker of duping a competitor in violation of federal law.
The case against Microsoft has been ongoing in federal court in Salt Lake City for about a month.
Utah-based Novell Inc. claims Microsoft duped the company into thinking its WordPerfect writing application would be included in the Windows ’95 rollout.
Novell says it was later forced to sell WordPerfect for a $1.2 billion loss.
Microsoft lawyers will open their case Monday with testimony from Gates.
They say he will testify he dumped WordPerfect because it threatened to crash Windows ’95 and wouldn’t be compatible with future versions.
Novell claims it was tricked, but Microsoft lawyers say the claims are groundless. They have sought a dismissal.
