As the latest round of the Java battle of the giants unfolds, Sun Microsystems Inc, in the blue corner, says a date of February 27 has been set for a Federal Court hearing on its motion to ban Microsoft Corp from putting the Java Compatible logo on its products, and Microsoft, in the red corner, says Sun’s litigation is nothing but mere theatrics. Sun went to the courts last month with accusations that Microsoft Corp broke its Java licensing agreement by claiming its Internet Explorer 4.0 Web browser, and its Java Development Kit 1.1 were fully Java Compatible when they are not, according to Sun (CI No 3,263). The February hearing date, which Sun is hoping to have brought forward even though the San Jose court is apparently full to bursting with such cases, will consider a preliminary injunction against Microsoft. However, Microsoft insists the licensing agreement between the two companies specifically states Sun cannot seek a court injunction, but can seek only monetary damages. It adds that its lawyers are reviewing the latest legal filings from Sun, but says they have so far seen nothing new, which confirms the company’s belief that this is just a PR stunt. Sun claims independent experts have confirmed that Microsoft has modified Java, and fails Sun’s compatibility tests. Sun is accusing Microsoft of inhibiting its Write Once, Run Anywhere objectives for Java, and suggests Microsoft is trying to tie developers into Windows by tweaking Java so that it will not run across other operating systems. Microsoft insists the products are in compliance with the terms of the agreement, and says it plans to continue shipping them unchanged.
