The US courts have blocked Microsoft’s attempts to
obtain documents from Novell as part of its long-running battle
against an anti-trust ruling by the European
Commission.
Microsoft had been seeking to obtain correspondence between
Novell and the EU, claiming that it needed the documents to defend
itself against the commission’s ruling. It tried to subpoena the
information through the US courts after attempts to obtain it from
the European Commission failed.
But Boston District Court Judge Mark Wolf ruled that Microsoft
was trying to undermine EU law, saying, “Enforcing Microsoft's...
subpoena to Novell would circumvent and undermine the law of the
European Community concerning how a litigant may obtain third-party
documents."
Last month, similar attempts by Microsoft to obtain documents
from Oracle and Sun Microsystems also failed. The courts are yet to
rule on a subpoena against IBM.
Microsoft faces a daily fine of £1.4m for failing to comply with
a 2004 European Commission anti-trust ruling. Although it has
complied with other conditions laid down by the commission, the
software giant is still locked in a battle over the demand that it
release documentation for its workgroup server protocols in an
acceptable format.
Microsoft is due to appeal against the European Commission
ruling at a week-long hearing later this month.