MONTREAL - The man behind one of the country's bloodiest school shootings claims his killing spree can't be compared to Marc Lepine's rampage at Montreal's Ecole polytechnique, which left 14 women dead.

One-time engineering professor Valery Fabrikant killed four of his colleagues at Concordia University in 1992, but insists his was a righteous attack against co-workers trying to steal his ideas.

"There is nothing in common," he said. "He killed innocent people, I didn't."

Fabrikant made the comments while in Quebec Superior Court on Monday as a lawsuit he launched before the slayings finally reached trial.

The lawsuit seeks a total of $600,000 in damages from several former Concordia professors who allegedly "unfairly profited" from his research and "extorted" his documents.

Such claims are not new for Fabrikant, who testified at his 1993 first-degree murder trial that he was driven to violence because his work was being appropriated.

Fabrikant kicked off the trial phase of his lawsuit by submitting a series of wide-ranging motions, including requests to access computer software, have some witnesses testify by phone and to clear his status as a vexatious litigator.

Since his conviction in 1993, Fabrikant has developed a reputation for taxing the court system with appeals, lawsuits and other legal requests and was ordered to stop doing so in 2000.

Fabrikant, who is representing himself, appeared to test Justice Gilles Hebert's patience on several occasions Monday.

Wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt and glasses, he repeatedly questioned Hebert's methodology during the proceedings and even scoffed at one of his rulings.

"What's so special about you," he asked the judge when his request for a larger table in the prisoner's box was put off.

Fabrikant also harangued defence lawyers for failing to convey certain documents.

"This is not behaviour of a decent and honest person," he told defence lawyer Jean-Francois Lehoux.

The defence team was often jumping up to object to Fabrikant's rambling explanations behind his motions concerning the co-authorship of scientific articles.

"He is trying to justify what he did 15 years ago," lawyer Roger Judd Jr. said.

"This case is about authorship and the extortion of articles and nothing else," Fabrikant replied.

Though Concordia University itself isn't cited in the lawsuit, it will likely be following the proceedings closely.

Fabrikant's allegations of intellectual fraud have hovered over the university's engineering department ever since the shootings, and even prompted the departure of rector Patrick Kenniff in 1994.

"I think there was something very fishy and unholy at Concordia in 1994," Fabrikant said while explaining his desire to call Kenniff's successor, Frederick Lowy, as a witness.

The university acknowledged the proceedings in a brief statement Monday, and has indicated separately they will seek to downplay any adverse publicity from the trial.

Fabrikant is expected to take the stand on Wednesday after Hebert rules on his motions.