Bristol Technology and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT - news) today announced an agreement settling the litigation between the companies that began in 1998. The terms of the settlement are confidential, but the claims of both parties are dismissed with prejudice. ``Bristol is very pleased with the conclusion of this litigation,'' said Keith Blackwell, Bristol CEO. ``This settlement is great news for the industry and Bristol because it allows Bristol to focus our time and resources on what we do best: developing excellent software and providing world class service.'' ``We are pleased to reach this agreement in order to put this matter behind us once and for all,'' said Dan Neault, Microsoft's director of business development for the platforms group. ``Microsoft always prefers to focus our time and efforts on listening to customers and developing great software, and this settlement will help us do that.'' The litigation began in August 1998 when Bristol filed its lawsuit against Microsoft. The trial ended with a jury finding in favor of Microsoft on all antitrust claims and in favor of Bristol on one claim under the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (CUPTA). In the past several months, the Federal District Court has awarded Bristol punitive damages for the CUPTA claim, attorney's fees and other relief, all of which are covered by this settlement. Bristol's Wind/U cross-platform developer tool, which utilizes Windows source code, is the leading cross-platform development product for Windows, UNIX, Linux, OpenVMS, and OS/390. Customers include Hewlett-Packard, Cadence Design Systems, Computer Associates, Cisco Systems, Lucent, and Sybase.