Sun Microsystems is seeking more than £700m in damages from
Microsoft in a private antitrust lawsuit.
Sun is also demanding an injunction that would force Microsoft to
include Sun's Java virtual machine (JVM) code in Windows XP and
Internet Explorer.
Sun's suit accuses Microsoft of using illegal means to block the
distribution of Sun's Java technology.
The suit "seeks to restrain Microsoft's anti-competitive behaviour
and remedy the damage that has resulted from Microsoft's illegal
monopoly," said Sun's general counsel, Michael Morris.
Sun is the third technology vendor to sue Microsoft on antitrust
grounds this year. Similar actions were filed in January by
Netscape Communications and last month by Be, which has sold off
its PC operating system assets and is dissolving itself.
Like Netscape and Be, Sun cited the ruling in the government's
antitrust case against Microsoft that was issued last June by the
US Court of Appeals in Washington. As part of that decision, the
appeals court found that Microsoft had used anti-competitive means
to get developers to use its Java implementation. But the court
also said Microsoft's JVM technology was not illegal in its own
right.
Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler contended that there is "no legal or
factual basis" for Sun's suit. "Millions of consumers who use
Windows also use Java technology every day," said Desler. "It's
time to move past these issues, many of which appear to be related
to the lawsuit that the [two companies] settled last year."
In an earlier case, Microsoft paid Sun £14m to settle a trademark
infringement lawsuit that Sun had filed in 1997 charging Microsoft
with illegally modifying Java.