How a case Oracle lost 14 years ago is troubling Microsoft, forcing it to seek a lifeline from UK’s Supreme Court
In 2012, Oracle went to the European Court of Justice to stop people reselling its software licences second-hand. It lost. That judgment, known as UsedSoft, settled a simple idea: once you sell someone a perpetual software licence, you cannot control what they do with it afterwards. Fourteen years on, that ruling is proving to be Microsoft’s biggest problem in a London courtroom.
Microsoft has now lost twice in a £270 million case brought by UK reseller ValueLicensing, and it is asking the Supreme Court for permission to try again.
