Sun granted injunction against Microsoft

November 18, 1998 — Celebration took place in the halls of Sun Microsystems’ Java Software division yesterday after employees learned that a US District Court granted Sun’s request for a preliminary injunction in its Java technology lawsuit against Microsoft. The celebrations no doubt extended outside Sun’s offices, as many Java enthusiasts critical of Microsoft’s implementation of Java rejoiced upon learning that — at least in the short term — Microsoft must not (per the injunction) ship incompatible versions of the Java language and its runtime engine, the Java virtual machine.

Judge Ronald Whyte of the US District Court in San Jose, Northern District of California, ruled that Sun is likely to prevail on the merits of the case. He ordered Microsoft to make changes to its products to include an implementation of Java that will pass Sun’s Java compatibility test suite, said Sun spokeswoman Lisa Poulson.

While the injunction is only temporary, it is significant for Sun because it forces Microsoft to make changes to its products for the duration of the trial, a date for which has not yet been set. The affected Microsoft products include Windows 98, Internet Explorer 4.0, and Microsoft’s Java Software Development Kit.

More specifically, the injunction requires Microsoft to stop shipping incompatible versions of the virtual machine and to support the standard native-language interface (JNI) in any versions it does ship. It requires Microsoft to stop shipping the current version of its language development environments, to make the standard-Java mode of its language compiler the default mode, to issue a warning to developers if they enable the non-standard mode, and to include a note in that warning that the Microsoft extensions they are enabling “may be disallowed by court order” in the future. (All of these actions must take place within 90 days, unless Microsoft is granted an extension by the court.)

The ruling also forbids Microsoft from entering into “exclusionary” contracts that prevent OEMs from bundling other compatible implementations of the Java platform. Finally, it requires Microsoft to announce these requirements to its customers within the next 15 days.

In a fence-mending effort, Alan Baratz, president of Sun’s Java Software division, held out an olive branch. In a teleconference shortly after the announcement, Baratz said that, “This is an opportunity for Microsoft to rejoin the Java community. We would welcome that, and we offer our help.” One day later, Microsoft issued a statement indicating it commits to complying with the court’s injunction. “Microsoft’s commitment to the Java programming language and Visual J++ has not wavered,” wrote Bob Muglia, senior vice president of Microsoft’s Applications and Tools Group, in an open letter posted on the Microsoft Visual J++ Web site today.

Note: To give vendors more room to innovate, Baratz indicated Sun will adopt a more flexible approach to its Java licensing agreements; details will be spelled out in upcoming announcements, Baratz said. Sun’s moves may be part of an effort to placate the HPs and Microsofts of the world, in order to let them add the features that they deem essential in ways that do not compromise the standardization that developers and consumers seek.

This is the second preliminary injunction awarded to Sun since it filed its lawsuit against Microsoft in October 1997. In March the court ordered Microsoft to temporarily stop using the steaming coffee cup Java-compatible logo on its Internet Explorer 4.0 and Software Development Kit for Java pending the outcome of the trial.

Sun’s suit alleges that Microsoft violated the terms of its Java licensing contract by releasing products that are incompatible with Sun’s Java specifications. Microsoft did this, according to Sun, because it felt threatened by Java and wanted to disrupt its ability to build software programs that run on any operating system.

Microsoft denies the charges, and argues that its use of Java has been within the terms of its contract.

“While this case proceeds through the court, we’ll continue to use our enormous energy in the marketplace — as will the other companies that are the cornerstones of the Java technology industry — to deliver high performing Java technology that outperforms Microsoft’s incompatible technology,” Baratz said in a statement. “We’ll continue to deliver technologies such as the Java Plug-In that gives developers and users the choice to replace Microsoft’s polluted technology with Sun’s compatible Java technology,” he added.

“This could create a logistical nightmare for Microsoft if it has to comply in three months with that kind of an order,” said Dwight Davis, a Kirkland, Wash., analyst at Summit Strategies. “This [applies to] anything shipping with Internet Explorer and its so-called Java technology — and that is just about everything.”

Davis added, however, that there’s still hope for Microsoft, which may appeal Tuesday’s ruling.

“[Microsoft] could present a hardship case in court that an appeals court might like,” Davis said.

One option Microsoft could have in order to avoid Sun’s charge that its Java products do not comply is to simply drop the name “Java” from its packaging and marketing materials. However, Davis pointed out that such a move would create some obvious problems for Visual J++, the company’s Java development tool. Microsoft often boasts that Visual J++ is the most popular Java tool on the market, and that its implementation of the Java virtual machine is the industry’s fastest.