Judge to Hear Microsoft, Sun Proposals

Both sides will discuss their proposed orders for how Microsoft will comply with the court's order to include Java in Windows.

The judge overseeing Sun Microsystems Inc.s legal battle with Microsoft Corp. has asked attorneys for both sides to come before him Wednesday afternoon to discuss the case—namely how Microsoft will comply with the courts order to include Java in Windows.

U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz has asked the parties to come before him in open court to discuss their proposed orders for how Microsoft must proceed with the judges ruling that the software giant ship or make available a Sun-compatible Java runtime environment with Windows.

Sun requested this as a preliminary injunction to be implemented while the two sides await trial in Suns antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft. Motz made his ruling on the issue last month following three days of arguments in his Baltimore court.

Both sides submitted their proposed orders to the court on Monday. Last Friday, during a hearing before Motz, Matthew Larrabee, an attorney for Microsoft, said he anticipated a high degree of variation in the proposed orders coming from Sun and Microsoft.

"There will be some issues about the competing forms of order," Larrabee said, in requesting time before the judge to discuss them. The issue was initially to be covered during a conference call between both parties and the judge.

"I dont want to see this mushroom into another evidentiary dispute," said Motz, "but if itd be good to have people here …" Motz said he could also simply grant Suns proposed order "reserving the right to amend it."

The proposed orders are likely to vary on issues relating to how Microsoft will comply with the injunction—such as whether to simply provide a link to a site for download of a compatible Java runtime, or to ship Java on CDs with Windows, etc. Microsoft filed its proposed order under seal.

"Id like to get this moving forward," Motz said. "I dont want debates about this to delay the order getting in place so the fourth circuit [U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit] can look at it."

Microsoft said it will appeal the ruling.

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