By Suzanna Kerridge, 27 May 1999 00:25
NEWS A US judge has made a tentative ruling on the battle over Java between Sun Microsystems and Microsoft. Judge Whyte ruled Microsoft had infringed Sun's copyrights by failing to comply with the Java licensing agreement. However, he also said Microsoft is allowed to independently develop related technology, providing it does not rely on Sun's intellectual property. Robin Bloor, MD of Bloor Research, said that while the ruling gives Sun a PR victory, "this is probably a bigger victory for Microsoft than they thought they'd see. It doesn't look like a crushing victory [for Sun] at all." However, the most significant outcome, Bloor said, could be the fragmentation of Java. "The one thing that has been threatening to happen - even if Microsoft wasn't trying to derail Java - is a splintering of Java, and this is tending towards that. I think as a consequence we'll see different versions of Java," he said. A final ruling will not be made until the last arguments are heard on 24 June.
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