Microsoft has claimed victory in a long-running lawsuit brought against the software giant over its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) scheme, after a US judge dismissed the case.

Late last week the judge in the District Court for the Western District of Washington dropped the case with prejudice, which means both the defendant and claimants will be required to pick up the legal tab.

It’s unclear if Microsoft came to any settlement agreement with the plaintiffs in the case. It alleged that WGA breached privacy because it was spyware used to gather information about users’ Windows XP machines and accused Microsoft of making false claims about the software.

Last month Microsoft dodged what could have been a nasty legal fight, after the WGA lawsuit was denied class-action status.

That dismissal was a victory for Microsoft, whose lawyers last year slammed the three-year-old case as "fictional", "demonstrably false" and from an "alternate universe."

WGA is used by Microsoft to combat piracy by checking to see if the copy of Windows running on a user's PC is legitimate. The suit had alleged that WGA was falsely advertised as a security update. ®