You are here: silicon.com > Hardware > Desktops

Microsoft forced to pay $20m to Sun for Java licence

Microsoft has been forced to pay $20m to Sun Microsystems to settle the companies' long running dispute over Java.

By Suzanna Kerridge

Published: 24 January 2001 11:40 GMT

A Californian judge has barred Microsoft from using the Java compatible trademark and ordered the company to accept a limited Java licence prohibiting it from distributing its own updated versions of the cross platform development language.

The seven year licence will allow Microsoft to continue shipping products with its current outdated 1.1.4 versions of Java but all future version must undergo a Sun 100 per cent pure Java compatibility test.

Sun took the case to court in October 1997 alleging copyright infringement, breach of contract and unfair competition. The company alleged abuse of the Java source code claiming Microsoft tweaked the technology to make it work better with the Windows operating system. This move, said Sun, undermined the concept of a cross platform language.

Add comment

Print story

Email story

RSS

'Java not an ugly duckling,' claims Gosling

Sun plays to its forte with Java tools update

Judge to SCO: "Where's your evidence?"

SCO ups IBM Linux lawsuit claims to $5bn

SCO slams Red Hat and sets new licence prices

In silicon.com

Commentary

silicon.com Dear silicon.com... ZX Spectrum nostalgia, Mac attack, tag a bag… Reader Comments of the Week

Steve Ranger Editor's Blog: Home computing from Acorn, Amiga and Amstrad, to the ZX Spectrum Nostalgia 2.0...

Latest News

Tech spend to top $3.4tr

Heathrow Airport: Lost laptop hotspot

Generation Y setting tech agenda

Orange plots Eee PC mobile broadband coup

Whitehall IT to be carbon neutral by 2020

Defra to ditch desktops and PDAs

Jobs

Java Developer

Black-Scholes, Monte-Carlo Front office risk experience in either Interest Rate Derivatives or FX Derivatives Structured Query Language (SQL) and ...

Cross Functional Project Manager(Prince 2) 37k Manchester

Cross Functional Project Manager (Prince 2) 35k Manchester Huxley Associates and one of the UK's leading PFI's have joined forces in the search for a ...

VB, C++, C Developer - Corby - cross train in to .NET - circa 30,000

VB, C++, C Developer - Corby - cross train in to .NET - circa 30,000 A leading marketing company based in Corby is offering a unique opportunity for ...

Special Report Focus

CIO50 2008
The silicon.com CIO50 2008 profiles the most influential and innovative tech chiefs in the UK across all industries and organisation size, from the biggest FTSE100 companies to high growth dot-com start ups and the public sector. The list was voted on by the UK CIO community and a panel of experts. Find out more in our latest special report.