Bristol Wins Historic Damages Award Against Microsoft; Federal Judge Awards Bristol Highest Ever CUTPA Punitive Damages.

Business Editors

DANBURY, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 1, 2000

On August 31, Federal District Judge Janet C. Hall issued a ruling on Bristol Technology's Motion for Award of Punitive Damages against Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) for violation of Connecticut's Unfair Trade Practices Act ("CUTPA"). The judge awarded Bristol $1 million, the highest ever CUTPA punitive damages award.

Judge Hall wrote in her opinion, "Stripped from the veil of Microsoft's protestations that it merely engaged in highly competitive behavior, Microsoft's deceptive statements (...) are, at their core, like a classic 'bait-and-switch' tactic perpetrated on the targeted ISVs, developers and UNIX users whom Microsoft sought to convert to Windows."

She continued, "Microsoft's deceptive acts constitute affirmative acts of misconduct which were designed to injure those to whom they were directed, and wantonly risked serious injury, albeit of a purely economic nature."

In reaction to the opinion, Keith Blackwell, Bristol CEO, stated, "We filed this suit over two years ago because we recognized that Microsoft was knowingly harming Bristol, the software industry, and consumers. The court's opinion is a victory for Bristol, but more importantly, for consumers. That Bristol has survived the last two years, developed new products for different markets, and is growing again is a tribute to Bristol employees and to the persistence of all entrepreneurs."

"Bristol took a stand against the industry giant. While Microsoft treated the jury verdict as a joke, Judge Hall took exquisite care in reviewing the evidence, and confirmed that Microsoft's actions were not only deceptive but deliberate," said Patrick Lynch, lead counsel of the O'Melveny & Myers team representing Bristol. "The judge's ruling hopefully shows that the courts will not tolerate deceptive practices -- even from billionaires."

The original suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, Connecticut on August 18, 1998, alleged that Microsoft injured Bristol and the rest of the software industry through predatory manipulation of the access to the Windows programming interfaces. In July 1999, a jury found that Microsoft had violated Connecticut's Unfair Trade Practice laws by engaging in deceptive practices.

About Bristol Technology

Headquartered in Danbury, Conn., Bristol Technology Inc. delivers software development solutions that make e-business work. Providing award-winning multi-platform application development tools since 1991, Bristol has proven expertise in cross-platform product development for Windows, UNIX, Linux, OpenVMS, and OS/390. This expertise provides a strong foundation for e-business infrastructure products targeted at enterprise application developers.

Bristol's e-business products result in increased developer productivity, reduced development resource requirements, faster application development schedules, and improved product quality. The company has a European subsidiary in Amersfoort, The Netherlands, and a development center in Bangalore, India.

Copyright (c) 2000 Bristol Technology Inc. Bristol Technology is a registered trademark of Bristol Technology Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.