Legal combatants Microsoft Corp and Sun Microsystems Inc have agreed to postpone the initial hearing in the case brought by Sun accusing Redmond of meddling with the core of the Java language and thus infringing its copyright and breaching the terms of its Java license. The case was originally expected to be heard July 31, but will now be heard September 4, by agreement between the two sides and the court. The move means Microsoft will be spending a lot of its time in court at the start of September, as its other prominent court case, the Windows 98 antitrust suit brought by the US Department of Justice is to be heard just four days later. Microsoft got back to us to say, however, that Sun’s motion to unseal sealed documents from both sides will still be heard on July 31, as presumably that does not need nearly so much preparation. Sun said Judge Ronald Whyte signed the agreement July 3 after both sides said they needed more time to take depositions from each other’s witnesses, mainly due to many of them being on vacation. For instance, Sun’s economist, Ken Arrow went off to Africa for three weeks, giving Microsoft little time to quiz him. The case will be heard in the district court in San Jose, California.
