Attorneys for Microsoft Question Critics’ Motives

Lawyers defending Microsoft Corp. in a landmark antitrust case tried to show Wednesday that Novell Inc. and other Microsoft critics are backing the government’s antitrust case to advance their own commercial interests.

Microsoft lawyer Michael Laco vara introduced an e-mail written by Novell Chief Technology Officer Carl S. Ledbetter that suggested the Orem, Utah, software company could use the antitrust litigation to get more of its software bundled with copies of Microsoft’s flagship Windows product, which runs more than 90% of personal computers.

“If what we are doing in the states’ antitrust case creates a crack in [Microsoft’s] resistance, we may have a way to renew the offer,” Ledbetter wrote in a Dec. 7 e-mail to Novell Chairman Jack L. Messman.

“We need to infiltrate the Microsoft strategy; after we get in, we can then proliferate,” Ledbetter wrote.

Novell and other rivals have contended that Microsoft should be compelled to disclose more of the technical underpinnings of Windows so that other developers can make their products more Windows-compatible.

Novell is backing the nine states and the District of Columbia suing Microsoft to force the software giant to create a modular version of Windows that would allow computer makers and consumers to substitute products such as Web browsers and multimedia software.

Microsoft attorneys introduced Novell product literature and news releases that declared that many flagship Novell products work fine with Windows.

After showing a Novell document that proclaimed that the company’s DirXML Web server “provides cross-platform support” and “out of the box connectivity” to a variety of PC operating systems, Lacovara asked Ledbetter if the statements were true.

“They are accurate” to a point, Ledbetter responded.

He added that Novell’s software will perform as advertised but lacked certain features when used with Windows because of compatibility issues Novell has been unable to resolve with Microsoft.

The trial in U.S. District Court was ordered by a federal appeals panel last year after it ruled Microsoft violated U.S. antitrust laws. The proceedings are expected to last until the end of May.