Corel Lawsuit Challenges U.S. Government Contract

[Mitch Stone <mstone@vc.net>]

I recently received a Request for Proposal from a California state agency 
specifically stipulating that all of the contractor's work be prepared 
and presented in Microsoft Word for Windows -- not even Word for the 
Macintosh (assuming we owned that) is allowed, apparently. So I guess we 
won't be proposing. We see this in federal contract specifications as 
well.

Maybe Corel's suit will raise the profile of this issue, which presently 
everyone is ignoring.

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http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19991217/tc/corel_5.html

Friday December 17 5:50 PM ET  

Corel Lawsuit Challenges U.S. Government Contract 

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian software developer Corel Corp. 
(Toronto:COR.TO - news)(NasdaqNM:CORL - news) is taking on the U.S. 
Department of Labor, filing a lawsuit on Friday alleging unlawful 
procurement practices. 

Corel is charging the department with sole sourcing a three-year software 
contract to Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) that Corel estimates 
is worth up to $8 million. The suit was filed in the District Court in 
Washington, D.C. 

Ottawa-based Corel said it is asking for an injunction against the 
contract, which it wants re-opened to competition. 

``Corel has taken this step to ensure that the United States government 
follows its own rules for open and fair procurement,'' said the company's 
legal counsel, Marcia Mills, in a statement. 

The legal battle follows Corel's June victory and C$9.9 million (US$6.7 
million) compensation from the Canadian government in a similar case. 
Corel had complained that a eight-year supply deal for about 300,000 
computers was unfairly awarded to Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O)  

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Mitch Stone
mstone@vc.net