Sun’s Scott McNealy and Alan Baratz discuss preliminary ruling in MS/Sun suit

March 24, 1998 — The JavaOne Developer Conference in San Francisco was all abuzz today with news of a preliminary injuction preventing Microsoft Corp. from promoting and distributing Internet Explorer (IE) 4.0 and other products using Sun’s “Java Compatible” logo. This decision comes out of the October 7, 1997 lawsuit in which Sun sued Microsoft in U.S. District Court for its improper modifications to the Java technology in IE 4.0 as well as its infringements against Sun’s trademark through distributing that browser and other products using the compatibility logo. (See Resources for links to previous JavaWorld coverage of this lawsuit.)

According to a press release issued by Sun today, Microsoft is barred from using “directly or indirectly Sun’s ‘Java Compatible’ trademark in connection with the advertising, distribution, sale, or promotion of the products” pending these products passing Sun’s test suite.

At JavaOne, Sun held an impromptu press conference in the main press room. Alan Baratz, president of Sun’s JavaSoft division, spoke to a group of a dozen or so press about the impact and meaning of the U.S. District Court’s preliminary decision. “This ruling dealt only with Microsoft’s use of the ‘Java Compatible’ logo,” said Baratz, in response to questions about Microsoft’s use of Java technology as a whole. He emphasized the fact that this preliminary ruling was not on the part of the suit dealing with Microsoft’s modifications to the Java platform. “It’s important that we identify what’s compatible and what’s not, and this [preliminary injunction] clarifies that position,” said Baratz.

“What this does is make it very clear in the marketplace — to consumers…to developers — that the virtual machine technology in IE 4 and the SDK does not pass compatibility tests…”

Clarifying the compatibility issue

While Baratz was speaking to the press, someone suddenly interrupted him, saying, “So what does this all mean?” That person was Sun CEO Scott McNealy himself. “The message had already been sent that Microsoft wasn’t shipping something compatible,” McNealy said, pointing out that some members of the developer community were well aware of the fact that the Redmond, WA-based company’s handling of the Java technology was different from Sun’s. “But for others,” McNealy continued, “this ruling by the judge is very important in making [this departure from compatibility] clear to everyone. We think that’s a huge statement.” An important issue for the CEO is clarity: “At least there is less confusion now. But there are still some outstanding issues. We’re pleased, though, with the speed at which this whole thing moved.”

Leaving MS behind

Members of the press queried the Sun CEO about how the company intended to deal with Microsoft as a result of its actions with the Java platform. McNealy was careful to define the parameters of what today’s announcement covered. “What we’ve asked [Microsoft] to do is get in compliance…. We have not asked them to stop shipping Java.” He confirmed his company’s stance, “We’d like them to abide by their contract.”

Speaking further on the subject of Sun’s dealings with Microsoft, McNealy said, “We stopped giving them new releases of Java; we stopped giving them technology.” When asked if Microsoft would be left behind on Java technology advances in the future, McNealy responded emphatically, “They’re being left behind right now!”