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Reports on computer company IBM Corp.'s victory in a chemical-exposure civil lawsuit filed against it in San Jose, California. Implications for other chemical-exposure cases against IBM and other computer companies; Background on the case; Reason behind the delay in the trial of the birth-defects case filed against the company.

This article reports on the ruling of Chief Judge Vaughan Walker on the antitrust claims filed by PeopleSoft Inc. against Oracle Corp. in San Francisco, California. The ruling paved the way for Oracle to proceed with its takeover bid for PeopleSoft, rejecting the effort of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to block the offer on antitrust grounds. According to Walker, the attorneys of DOJ had failed to prove that a merger of Oracle and PeopleSoft is substantially to lessen competition in the business applications market.

A leader in haptic feedback technology, Immersion, San Jose, California, announced the settlement of a lawsuit the company filed against Microsoft Corp. in February 2002. According to the agreement, Microsoft will license Immersion's haptic patent portfolio in exchange for cash payments of up to $35 million. Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI), Mountain View, has joined Discreet's infrastructure sparks partner program. As a result, the two companies will work together to qualify elements of SGI's InfiniteStructure system, including the SGI SAN Server and SGI CXFS file system, to work with various Discreet software products.

Opinion. Looks at how computer companies in Silicon Valley, California, have reacted over the United States Justice Department's antitrust suit against Microsoft. Claims made by Microsoft against the Justice Department; Reasons for the antitrust investigations and lawsuit; Details on the reactions of companies towards the suit.