A federal judge on Tuesday formally ordered Microsoft Corp. to distribute Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java programming language in its Windows operating system.
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The order by U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz in Baltimore comes nearly a month after Motz concluded that it was needed to remedy Microsoft's past antitrust violations.
It requires Microsoft to begin putting Sun's Java into Windows within 120 days. A Microsoft spokesman has said the company will file an immediate appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia.
Motz issued the order a day after attorneys for Microsoft and Sun finally agreed on details of how Microsoft should comply with the order.
An antitrust lawsuit filed by Santa Clara, California-based Sun charges Microsoft has tried to sabotage Sun's Java software, which can run on a variety of operating systems, not just Windows.
In a Dec. 23 ruling, Motz concluded that Sun had a good chance of winning its case against Microsoft and said he would grant a preliminary injunction forcing Microsoft to include Java in its Windows computer operating system.
Motz has agreed to stay his 120-day requirement for two weeks to give the appellate court time to consider Microsoft's expected appeal.
Motz has been assigned cases arising from the landmark government antitrust suit filed in 1998, including a private suit by AOL Time Warner and class actions suits on behalf of consumers.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in 2001, reviewed the government suit and agreed that Microsoft had illegally maintained its monopoly in the Windows computer operating system but rejected breaking the company in two to prevent future violations.
Source: Reuters
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