Sun, Be File Private Antitrust Lawsuits

Using facts and judgments from the federal antitrust case as a template, Sun Microsystems and Be, Inc., have filed private antitrust suits against Microsoft. Along with the lawsuit AOL Time Warner filed in Feb. 2002 (see “AOL Suit Reopens Browser Monopoly, Tying Claims” on page 22 of the Mar. 2002 Update), these lawsuits signal an unwelcome trend for Microsoft: competitors are beginning to use findings of fact and court rulings from the federal antitrust case as the basis for private lawsuits that go beyond the scope of the federal case. (For coverage of the federal antitrust case, see “Judge Considers DoJ Antitrust Settlement“.)

Sun Suit Goes Beyond Appeals Court Decision

Sun and Microsoft have tangled in court before: in Jan. 2001, the companies settled a three-year-old lawsuit over Microsoft’s distribution of proprietary extensions to Sun’s Java platform. (See “Java Suit Settled” on page 31 of the Mar. 2001 Update.) Subsequently, an appeals court in Microsoft’s federal antitrust case decided that Microsoft used illegal tactics to promote its Java Virtual Machine (JVM), which was not fully compatible with Sun’s competing JVM. (See “What the Appeals Court Said” on page 32 of the Aug. 2001 Update.)