Federal District Court approves Microsoft-Sun Joint Agreement

U.S. Federal District Court Judge J. Frederick Motz has issued an order approving the provisions that were reached between Microsoft and Sun Microsystems over the weekend. Judge Motz had ordered the parties to draft a mutually agreeable preliminary injunction 'behind closed doors' this past weekend after ruling on December 23rd that Sun had a strong likelihood of prevailing in its antitrust claim against Microsoft.

The Judge's 11-page Order provides that within 120 days from the Order entry, Microsoft must include Sun's Java runtime environment in every copy of Windows and Internet Explorer it sells. The ruling applies only to the English language versions of Windows (until a localized version of Sun's Java runtime environment is available in a non-English language). The Order also reportedly requires Microsoft to "notify customers via any and all Microsoft update services" that the latest Java software is available and to "refrain from disabling" the Java software.

As expected, Microsoft said it would immediately appeal Judge Motz's grant of the preliminary injunction to the U.S. Court of Appeals, and Judge Motz allowed an appeals process of two extra weeks in his Order for the start of the 120-day time period. Sun, elated with Judge Motz's ruling and Order, issued the following statement through its spokesperson, Lee Patch, Vice President for Strategic Litigation: "This preliminary injunction is a huge victory for consumers who will soon have the best, latest Java technology on their PCs. It is also a victory for enterprises and for the worldwide Java Community of developers and system vendors."

Sun brought its initial complaint against Microsoft (which asked for a preliminary injunction on the basis that Microsoft deliberately tried to sabotage its Windows OS) after another Federal District Court Judge, the U. S. Department of Justice and various State Attorneys General all determined that Microsoft had violated federal antitrust laws.