Microsoft Gets Sued Again

Sun Microsystems Inc. said Friday it is suing rival Microsoft for more than $1 billion because the software giant made the Windows XP operating system incompatible with Sun's Java programming language.

Accusing Microsoft of "extensive anticompetitive conduct," Sun charged that Microsoft forced other companies to distribute products that do not work with Java, effectively crippling Java and inhibiting its growth.

Microsoft spokesman Matt Pilla declined to comment.

This case comes less than two months after another fierce competitor, AOL Time Warner, sued Microsoft over its dominance in the Web browser market.

In its lawsuit, which was to be filed in federal court in San Jose, Sun asks that Microsoft be forced to distribute Sun's latest version of Java with Windows XP and the Internet Explorer browser.

"We think we can prove substantial economic damage, but I wouldn't hazard to estimate at this stage, except to say that we can show substantial damages. It would be north of a billion," said Sun's general counsel, Mike Morris.

Java is a popular programming language that supports software applications on a variety of computers, regardless of the underlying operating system. The language is widely used on Web sites, and Sun had hoped to make it a universal programming language.

Sun, which makes large computers that manage corporate networks, has long had a bitter relationship with Microsoft and has sued the company in the past.

Last year, Sun settled a federal lawsuit against Microsoft over the Redmond, Wash.-based company's creation of a Windows-only version of Java that was incompatible with other software. Microsoft paid Sun $20 million and agreed to no longer license from Sun any current or new versions of Java.

Microsoft then decided not to include tools for reading Java in Windows XP.

Sun General Counsel Michael Morris said that Sun requested that the court require Microsoft to begin immediately including its Java software on Windows XP.

"We expected Sun to sue Microsoft just like AOL did, based on the findings of the District court that Microsoft was in fact a monopoly," said Brendan Barnicle, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities.

Microsoft, found to have violated antitrust law in a landmark case brought by the federal government and state attorneys general, faces private antitrust suits from consumers and a suit filed in January by AOL Time Warner.