Microsoft Corp may face a temporary injunction barring it from continuing its present licensing practice for MS-DOS, according to the Washington, DC newsletter FTC:Watch. At issue is Microsoft’s policy of granting discounts on MS-DOS to personal computer manufacturers that agree to pay for a copy for each machine they sell, regardless of whether the user wants MS-DOS. Novell Inc, which despite sales approaching $1,000m a year (figures, page five), claims that as a result it has been unable to break into the market with its DR DOS. FTC:Watch reports that sources within the department said lawyers at the Federal Trade Commission’s bureau of competition, which has been investigating Microsoft for two years, were submitting a report asking permission for the preliminary injunction. Neither side would comment on the substance of the report, noting that the probe was non-public.
