Date Set for Caldera Lawsuit

A federal judge set a Feb. 1 trial date in Salt Lake City for Caldera Inc.’s $1.6-billion lawsuit against Microsoft Corp., which claims the world’s largest software maker used monopoly power to crush a rival computer operating system. Caldera, a closely held software company, is accusing Microsoft of engaging in anti-competitive actions in the late 1980s that kept its DR-DOS operating system off the market. DR-DOS was a potential competitor to Microsoft’s MS-DOS system. Orem, Utah-based Caldera claims Microsoft illegally “tied” its own DOS operating system with Windows 95 when it developed that product, violating antitrust law that bars a company from combining a product that has a monopoly with a separate product in order to deny a market for competitors. Microsoft counters that combining its MS-DOS with Windows 95 represented a technological advance and that the combined technologies should be considered one product. Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft’s shares fell $1.25 to close at $91.75 on Nasdaq.