San Francisco - A senior Microsoft Corp. executive told a federal court here yesterday that the Java licensing contract it signed with Sun Microsystems Inc. places limits on the features in Microsoft's Java products that are required to pass muster with Sun's Java compatibility tests.
"Testing is a very powerful feature, so Microsoft was careful to limit the features Sun could test for," said Robert Muglia, senior vice president of Microsoft's tools and applications division.
Muglia made his remarks under questioning from Microsoft counsel Karl Quakenbush in the opening day of evidentiary hearings in Sun's lawsuit against the software giant. In the lawsuit Sun alleges Microsoft is using a version of Java in its products that does not comply with the specifications laid down in its licensing contract.
Sun is scheduled to call its own witnesses to the stand tomorrow, and on Thursday lawyers for the two sides will present oral arguments to U.S. District Court Judge Whyte over Sun's request for preliminary a injunction in the case.
In almost two hours of questioning, Quakenbush pressed Muglia on details about negotiations with Sun over the contract, which was eventually signed at 3:45 AM on March 12 at Sun's new Cupertino, California JavaSoft headquarters, after a marathon 18-hour negotiating session between the companies, Muglia said.
Throughout the negotiations, Muglia told the court, Microsoft emphasized that it must retain the right to define certain features in its Java products if it was to sign the contract. In particular, Microsoft wanted the right to develop independently of Sun its own native code interfaces -- application programming interfaces that determine that way programs written in Java interact with an operating system such as Windows, Muglia said.
Asked if Alan Baratz, president of Sun's JavaSoft division understood that requirement, Muglia replied: "He did."
Sun executives were not immediately available for comment during a lunch break in the proceedings, but court documents filed by Sun point to contradictions between Muglia's account of the negotiations and that of Baratz, who Sun plans to call among its witnesses tomorrow.
"At no time did I agree that 'Microsoft alone' would create native code interfaces, or that Microsoft would not be obligated to implement the interfaces created by Sun, including a native code interface, and to do so in a manner that passes Sun's compatibility test suite," Baratz said in the filing.
Before the break, Sun counsel Lloyd Day began his cross-examination of Muglia. In a tone notably more aggressive than Quakenbush's, Day pressed Muglia on public statements made by Microsoft about its intention to deliver an entirely compatible version of Java in its products.
The evidentiary hearings are due to continue this afternoon.
Sun filed a lawsuit against Microsoft last
October, claiming the software giant had used a version of Java in its browser software and software development tools that was incompatible with the specifications laid out in Sun's Java licensing contract. Microsoft did this, according to Sun, to derail Java's cross-platform capabilities, which has been widely perceived as a threat to the dominance of Microsoft's Windows operating system. Microsoft steadfastly denies the charges, and says it has complied with the terms laid out in its Java licensing agreement.
When Sun has finished its cross examination of Muglia, Microsoft is expected to call to the stand Jerry Hausman, a professor of economics at MIT, who is expected to talk about what he will claim are deficiencies in Sun's unfair competition motion, according to documents filed last week with the court.
Microsoft will also call two other professors today including Peter Lee, an associate professor in the computer science department of Carnegie Mellon University, the court records show. Lee will dispute claims made in Sun's motion for preliminary injunction, including claims made by Sun engineer James Gosling, one of the chief architects of the Java language, the court records show.
Thursday's hearing now appears likely to be closed to the press and public following a preliminary ruling from Judge Whyte late last week. Lawyers for each side told Whyte they plan to quote from e-mails in their presentations that are sealed to the public under a confidentiality order, and asked Whyte to close the hearings to the press, a Sun spokeswoman said.
RELATED LINKS
Sun, Microsoft offer judge differing lessons on Java
Network World Fusion, 9/1/98.
Sun alleges new Java violations by Microsoft
Network World Fusion, 7/10/98.
Microsoft tries again to get suit dismissed
Network World Fusion, 9/9/98.
Microsoft faces another suit
This one over Windows NT code. Network World Fusion, 8/19/98.
More Microsoft suit coverage
From IDG.net.
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