Microsoft seeks Supreme Court lifeline in pre-owned license battle
£270M ValueLicensing case remains mostly paused while Redmond pursues permission to appeal
Microsoft has secured a reprieve in the ValueLicensing saga, seeking Supreme Court permission to continue its legal battle over pre-owned license agreements. Earlier in July, the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ruled that reselling Microsoft on-premises software licenses did not infringe copyright. Microsoft appealed this decision but lost on July 7th.
The case was initially stayed in February, pending the Court of Appeal's decision, and was granted an extended stay on July 21st after Microsoft indicated its intention to appeal. Microsoft's strategy has been to argue that reselling its software constitutes copyright infringement. The CAT disagreed with this stance. In 2021, ValueLicensing sued Microsoft for £270 million, alleging that the company stifled the supply of surplus Office licenses.
The stay does not cover ValueLicensing's disclosure and confidentiality applications, which are expected to be considered in September. The decision to grant the stay has been described as a "middle ground" by the CAT Chair, Justin Turner KC, who noted the potential for wasted costs if the appeal is successful and the undesirability of further delays.
Written by urgent.news from The Register Software's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
