Bill Gates Testifies in $1B Lawsuit Against Microsoft

Bill Gates wanted the top word processor on the market to be included in Windows 95 -- and by 1994 that just happened to be his own program, the Microsoft Corp. co-founder testified Monday in a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit filed by the creator of then-rival WordPerfect.

"It was a real milestone," he said of the shift in popularity.

Gates, wearing a gray suit and a yellow tie, was the first witness to testify Monday as Microsoft lawyers presented their case in the trial that's been ongoing in federal court in Salt Lake City for about a month.

Utah-based Novell Inc. sued Microsoft in 2004, claiming the Redmond, Wash., company violated U.S. antitrust laws through its arrangements with other software makers when it launched Windows 95. Novell says it was later forced to sell WordPerfect for a $1.2 billion loss. Novell is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group, the result of a merger that was completed earlier this year.

Gates said Novell just couldn't deliver a Windows 95 compatible WordPerfect program in time for its rollout, and its own Word program was actually better. He said that by 1994, Microsoft's Word writing program was ranked No. 1 in the market above WordPerfect.

Gates called it an "important win."