Microsoft Ordered to Hand Over Blueprints

Microsoft Corp. is under federal court order to surrender part of its blueprints for Windows 95 to a rival in Utah that filed an antitrust case largely paralleling the U.S. government’s landmark lawsuit. Under the order, Orem, Utah-based Caldera Inc. can show the so-called source code for Windows 95 only to its lawyers and experts and can’t develop commercial products based on it. Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft said it would turn over the software blueprints within five days. U.S. Magistrate Ron Boyce refused a request by Microsoft to prevent Caldera’s experts from consulting on the design of any operating system software for up to 18 months. “Who knows what [Caldera’s experts will] find when they look under the hood?” said James Love, director of the Washington-based Consumer Project on Technology, which has been monitoring the legal fight. Love said the significance of the code “depends on what they come up with.” The trial is set to begin in June 1999 and last four weeks.