Microsoft ordered to ship Java Programme within 120 days
By Our Convergence Bureau | 16 Jan 2003
Baltimore: A federal judge has ordered Microsoft to begin shipping Sun Microsystems' Java programme within 120 days, after the companies fought over implementing a ruling he made last month.
US district judge J Frederick Motz summoned lawyers for both sides in the private antitrust suit to a hearing on their failure to agree on the terms of a preliminary injunction. “I can't sit here hearing after hearing,“ said Motz. “I want this done in 120 days.“
Motz later told lawyers for Microsoft and Sun that he would stay his 120-day ruling by two weeks as a courtesy to the appeals court which would likely be asked to review the ruling by Microsoft.
The judge had, on 23 December 2003, ruled that Sun had a good chance of winning its antitrust case against Microsoft, and said he would grant a preliminary injunction forcing Microsoft to include Java in its Windows computer operating system.
He had ordered each side to draft a proposal detailing how to carry out the Java “must-carry“ directive and then negotiate a compromise with each other.
Sun had complained in a court filing that Microsoft wanted to take up to a year before including the Java programme to copies of Windows it sells.