Judge Rules for Sun Over Microsoft
The Associated Press
Tuesday, May 25, 1999; 3:17 p.m. EDT
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Several Microsoft Corp. products, including Windows 98, infringed Sun Microsystems Inc. copyrights, a federal judge said in a nonbinding, tentative ruling on Tuesday.
However, the ruling -- issued by U.S. District Court in San Jose -- said that Microsoft can develop and distribute ''independently developed'' tools that do not comply with a contract with Sun, so long as such products do not infringe any Sun copyright, patent or other intellectual property right.
The three-part ruling will be finalized -- and possibly changed
-- after oral arguments scheduled in June.
Sun, based in Palo Alto, has tried to promote its programming language Java as a universal language that can be used with any form of software.
The company sued Microsoft, contending that the Redmond, Wash.-based computer company used its licensed version of Java to design a Windows-only form that was incompatible with rival software, in violation of a contract.
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This article is from the Washington Post. It appears that MS "...can develop and distribute "independently developed"' tools that do not comply with a contract with Sun, so long as such products do not infringe any Sun copyright, patent or other intellectual property right..."
It probably will be in the courts for some time and SUNW is being more liberal now promoting JAVA according to open independent standards rather than looking for exclusive licensing deals. I believe this strategy will help JAVA become a default standard faster going forward.
EKS |
