Sun Microsystems Inc has won its fight to get a San Jose District Court to release documents related to its legal battle with Microsoft Corp over infringement regarding the Java programming language. Judge Thomas Whyte has issued an order to unseal virtually all of the exhibits and attachments to Sun’s motions for preliminary injunction on the grounds of alleged unfair competition and copyright infringement. Also to be unsealed are Microsoft’s opposition papers and Sun’s replies. The order requires that each party should deliver the documents to the court clerk no later than Friday at 3 pm. Sun first asked the court to unseal the documents back in July. They had originally been sealed due to concerns over the fact that the information contains quotes from Microsoft internal presentations and emails. Sun, which filed two motions for preliminary injunction in May, is seeking relief over Microsoft’s alleged fragmentation of Java by producing Java tools that are not compatible with the language specification and also over infringement of its copyright because Microsoft has been distributing Sun source code in its products without permission. A decision in the matter is expected within the next couple of weeks.
