Dell and HP Back Microsoft in Word Lawsuit

Dell and HP are supporting Microsoft's effort to have the Word injunction overturned.

When Microsoft last week filed an emergency motion against the injunction that would prevent the company from selling Word in the United States, it cited irreparable harm and claimed it would never be able to recoup the funds expended in redesigning and redistributing Word. However the company also made another argument: think of our retail partners! Microsoft said that folks like HP, Best Buy and Dell would "face the imminent possibility of a massive disruption in their sales."

It seems as though HP and Dell are particularly worried as PC Mag reports that the latter has filed an amicus curiae brief asking the judge overseeing the case to reconsider.

Penned by Dell's lawyers and joined by HP, PC Mag cites the brief as saying the injunction would have an impact "far beyond Microsoft," and asked that the injunction be delayed by 120 days. While information considered confidential was left out of the public record (including the how the injunction would effect Dell) Dell did say that shipping a revised version of Word would mean changing Dell's images.

"Making such a change would require extensive time- and resource- consuming testing," Dell said according to the brief.

Read the full story here.