Java Wars

The court finds that negotiating for or enforcing the above-mentioned licensing terms constitutes an unfair business practice. Microsoft does not argue that these licensing provisions bear any utility which outweighs the harm asserted by Sun. That Microsoft apparently no longer requires its licensees to adhere to such terms and that it plans to abandon its logo licensing program as to Java provides an insufficient basis for denying Sun its requested relief.10 See Polo Fashions, Inc. v. Dick Bruhn Inc., 793 F.2d 1132, 1135-36 (9th Cir. 1986).

Additionally, the court finds that Microsoft's designation of its virtual machine as the "Official Reference Implementation of Java on Windows 32-bit platforms" is misleading. The TLDA defines "Reference Implementation VM" as "[Microsoft]-authored Derivative Works or Independent Works of the Java Runtime Interpreter for Win3 2 Platforms." TLDA § 1.10. However, this definition does not expressly state or imply that Microsoft's runtime interpreter is the Sun designated, official reference implementation for Win32 platforms. Microsoft directs the court to no other language in the TLDA which supports its position.

The prelimary injunction by U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte did not fully reinstate the original order as Sun had requested. Nevertheless, Sun general counsel Michael Morris praised the move as a significant step in the right direction.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte rejected Microsoft's request for summary judgement regarding the independent development of Java, Microsoft said. Whyte also dismissed a Sun counter motion.

The judge denied both motions, stating that the issue will have to be determined at trial as both sides offered plausible interpretations of the contract, according to the software giant. There are still eight other summary judgments pending in the case, and no trial date has been set.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte late today accepted Microsoft's request for summary judgment, dismissing Sun's copyright claims.

The decision is the second blow to Sun's case in about a month. On April 7, Whyte rejected select portions of Sun's interpretation of the license with Microsoft for its Java technology.

Under the settlement, Microsoft will pay Sun $20 million and is permanently prohibited from using "Java compatible" trademarks on its products, according to Sun. Sun also gets to terminate the licensing agreement it signed with Microsoft.

For its part, Microsoft is permitted to use a version of Java in Microsoft products that already contain it, or that already are in the testing phase, for the next seven years, according to the company.

In full-page ads in The New York Times, San Jose Mercury News and The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Sun called on consumers "to demand that Microsoft include the Java platform in their XP operating system." Sun also said consumers should demand "PC vendors like Dell, Compaq, Gateway, IBM and HP (Hewlett-Packard) include the Java platform in their applications."

At the same time, Sun is quietly developing a new version of its software specifically for Windows XP that it hopes to place on new PCs and make available for download.

Microsoft described Sun's campaign against Microsoft as "unparalleled hypocrisy," arguing the company "has taken every step possible to prevent Microsoft from shipping its award winning Java virtual machine. They spent several years suing to stop Microsoft from shipping a high-performance Java virtual machine that took advantage of Windows."

The argument is simple. Rather than saying "Sun made us do this," which makes no sense with Scott McNealy running full page ads asking Microsoft to ship Java in XP, Microsoft will blame a third-party, a little company in Chicago called Eolas Development Corporation.

The bottom line comes slowly into focus
01-Aug ZDNet: Study: Java to overtake C/C++ in 2002

The research also shows that Java usage has been rising at the expense of Visual Basic and C/C++. "This means that, for the first time, more North American developers will be using Java than Visual Basic or C/C++ next year," Garvin said. "Java usage is even stronger outside North America, with almost 60 percent of developers expecting to spend some part of their programming time using Java."

Initial surveys have shown that only a small portion of developers intend to try Microsoft Corp.'s C# language, which is relatively new, and those developers will predominantly be ones already using Microsoft programming languages, Garvin said. There is no evidence of any significant adoption to date, she added.