Corrected version

Bloomberg reports that the judge in the Novell vs. Microsoft antitrust case has declared a mistrial in Novell's antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft after a jury couldn't reach a unanimous verdict.

The federal trial, held in Salt Lake City, stems from Novell's accusation that Microsoft violated U.S. antitrust laws in relation to the WordPerfect program.

Microsoft co-founder and Chairman Bill Gates had testified in November during the trial.

Here's Bloomberg's story.

Steve Aeschbacher, an attorney for Microsoft, issued the following statement: "We are disappointed that the jury was unable to reach a verdict. However, we very much appreciate their service throughout the trial, and we remain confident that Novell's claims here do not have merit, and look forward to the next steps in the process."

[Updated 5:38 p.m.: Novell, which is now owned by Seattle-based Attachmate Corp., issued the following statement from its attorney Jim Lundberg: "While Novell is disappointed that the jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision, Novell still believes in the strength of its claim. Clearly, this is a complicated technical case and Novell is hopeful that a re-trial will allow the opportunity to address any uncertainties some of the jurors had with this trial."]

Here's a good summation of what happened from The Salt Lake Tribune.

Information in this blog post, originally published Dec. 16, 2011, was corrected later that day. The Associated Press, which had originally been cited in the blog post, had reported that the judge dismissed Novell's lawsuit against Microsoft. The judge actually declared a mistrial.