The case, filed in the US District Court in San Jose, describes at length the harm inflicted by Microsoft's anti-competitive behaviour with respect to the Java platform. Its arguments are supported by a ruling of June 2001, when the Federal Court of Appeals found Microsoft guilty of illegally abusing its monopoly power with respect to Sun’s Java platform and AOL’s Netscape internet browser. AOL Time Warner recently announced its own lawsuit against Microsoft on the back of the same ruling.
Michael Morris, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Sun said:
"This private antitrust lawsuit is intended to restore competition in the marketplace by removing unlawful barriers to the distribution of the Java platform and to interoperability between Microsoft software and competitive technologies. The achievement of these goals will allow for greater innovation and increased customer choice."
In its complaint, Sun alleges that Microsoft is liable for:
Morris continued:
“While this suit is based on the past actions of Microsoft, Sun also believes that Microsoft's continuing practices in the marketplace represent a threat to lawful competition and the millions of developers who depend on the existence of an open software industry. This behaviour manifests Microsoft's goal to use its monopoly position to turn the internet into its proprietary platform. What is at stake here is the future of an open software industry and an open internet.”
In its suit, Sun is seeking preliminary injunctions requiring Microsoft to distribute Sun's current binary implementation of the Java plug-in as part of Windows XP and Internet Explorer and to stop distribution of Microsoft's Java Virtual Machine through separate downloads.
Sun is also seeking a permanent injunction requiring Microsoft to disclose and license proprietary interfaces, protocols, and formats and to unbundle tied products, such as Internet Explorer, IIS web server, and the .Net framework.
Sun’s lawsuit can be downloaded as a 76-page PDF from: www.sun.com/lawsuit/complaint.pdf