Representatives of both companies discuss latest legal maneuver October 27, 1997 — Responding to claims of Sun Microsystems in U.S. District Court, Microsoft on Monday filed a countersuit of its own, charging Sun with breach of contract related to its licensing of Sun’s Java programming language.Microsoft has countersued Sun for breach of contract, breach of “the covenant of good faith and fair dealing,” and unfair competition for Sun’s “repeated failure to live up to its obligations under the two companies’ agreement,” according to a Microsoft statement.“We stayed within the absolute letter of the agreement and Sun tried to rewrite that agreement, after the fact,” said Cornelius Willis, group product manager at Microsoft. Microsoft’s countersuit outlines breaches of contract by Sun, according to the Microsoft statement. The countersuit specifies that, contrary to the agreement between the two companies, Sun failed to deliver technology that passes Sun’s own test suites and has failed to provide a public set of test suites, according to the statement.Sun also has “consistently failed in its obligation to treat Microsoft on an equal footing with all other licensees,” according to the Microsoft statement.In addition, the Microsoft suit charges Sun with unfair business practices for Sun’s “repeated false statements about the compatibility and desirability of Microsoft’s products and Microsoft’s rights under the agreement.” Sun officials on Monday said they were not surprised by the countersuit.“We fully expected Microsoft to file a countersuit. In fact, you might even call this your garden-variety legal tactic,” said Sun spokeswoman, Anne Little, who added that Sun has no further comment on any pending litigation.Microsoft and Sun have been in a war of words over Java since well before October 7, when Sun announced its lawsuit charging Microsoft with breach of contract regarding Java licensing. Sun claimed that Microsoft’s implementation of Java in its Internet Explorer 4.0 Web browser did not meet the terms of the license requirements, among other charges. Microsoft is seeking the dismissal of Sun’s suit, a finding that Sun is in breach of the license agreement, unspecified monetary damages, and revocation of Sun’s rights to Microsoft’s implementation of Java, according to Willis.“There is a best implementation of Java, and that is ours,” Willis said. “Our strategy remains unchanged…and we don’t believe Sun has any right to try to change that strategy.”Willis also said that, contrary to statements by Sun, Microsoft’s Java license is substantially different from the agreements other licensees signed. “[Sun] traded away very important rights with the [license] agreement for .5 million and the Microsoft trademark. Being able to count Microsoft as a supporter of Java was very valuable,” he said.Willis also said the contract required Microsoft to ship Sun’s Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.0.2, which is in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 3x, but that Microsoft was not required or obligated to ship any future versions of the JDK.Sun Microsystems Inc., in Mountain View, CA, can be reached at https://www.sun.com. Microsoft Corp., in Redmond, WA, can be reached at https://www.microsoft.com. Java