Java Suit Settled

Microsoft and Sun Microsystems have settled their longstanding legal conflict over Microsoft’s version of Java, ending a three-year headache for Microsoft and vindicating its legal and strategic tactics relative to Java. Under terms of the settlement, Microsoft will pay Sun US$20 million and is barred from using any logos or language in its products suggesting that they are “Java-compatible.” The two companies also agreed to drop all claims and counter-claims in the case, to terminate their current license agreement (which was due to end in Mar. 2001), and to enter a new, strictly limited license agreement.

The new license agreement allows Microsoft to continue to use all Java-related technologies currently in use in its products for seven years, but does not allow any significant alterations to these technologies. The settlement does not bar the two companies from entering into future license agreements.

No Effect on Microsoft Products

Sun brought the suit in Nov. 1997, alleging that, among other things, Microsoft was creating proprietary extensions to Java, then incorporating these extensions into developer tools and consumer products without clearly explaining the difference between the original version and the proprietary Microsoft version. Programs written with the Microsoft extensions ran well on Microsoft platforms, but poorly or not at all on others. Sun had positioned Java as a language in which developers could write a single application that would run on many operating systems, including Windows, Unix, and the Mac, and was concerned that developers were being tricked into creating Windows-only (or Windows-preferred) Java applications. Over the course of the case, which never reached trial, Microsoft removed text and logos from its marketing suggesting that these products were fully Java-compatible and made some changes that made the products more acceptable to Sun. (For a history of the case, including the products affected, and references to articles with more technical details, see “Sun vs. Microsoft Timeline“.)