Good Morning, Silicon Valley is reporting that the US Department of Justice will pay more than $2 million each year to buy business software from Corel — described as “a leading Microsoft rival”.

The new purchase agreement makes the latest version of Corel’s WordPerfect Office software available to more than 50,000 lawyers and other Justice employees.

That includes the department’s antitrust division, which successfully sued Microsoft over illegal efforts to dominate the software industry but negotiated a settlement later to end the company’s court appeals.

The deal is worth up $13.2 million over five years. It also represents a high-profile sale for Corel among lawyers, where it traditionally has enjoyed a loyal following.

Hmmm… I had assumed that WordPerfect died years ago. Now I discover that U.S. courts require all electronic filings to be submitted as WordPerfect documents, and the Department of Justice has thousands of programmed shortcuts designed to work with WordPerfect. For the first time in my life, I feel sorry for lawyers.