Microsoft Appeals Preliminary Injunction Ruling in Sun Lawsuit

BLOOMINGTON, Minn., Jan. 11, 1999 — REDMOND, Wash. – Jan. 14, 1999 – Microsoft Corp. filed its appeal of the preliminary injunction issued by the Federal District Court in San Jose on Nov. 18, 1998, in the contract dispute with Sun Microsystems Inc. The appeal, filed with the U.S. Appeals Court in San Francisco, is based on arguments that the district court erred in its interpretation of the licensing contract and applied incorrect legal standards in granting a preliminary injunction.

“Microsoft believes that the district court made several errors that should be reversed by the court of appeals,” said Tom Burt, associate general counsel at Microsoft. “This lawsuit is about the contract between two companies. We believe the court’s preliminary injunction ruling was based on an erroneous analysis of the contract.”

The appeal outlines several key issues in the preliminary injunction order that Microsoft believes the U.S. Appeals Court should reverse. A key issue is the fact that the court mistakenly treated this issue as a copyright issue rather than a contract dispute. To avoid remedies limitations in the contract, Sun argued to the district court that Microsoft was violating Sun’s copyright.

“We also believe the court applied incorrect legal standards and failed to properly consider all the facts in reaching a preliminary determination about the meaning of the contract,” Burt added. Microsoft contends that the court improperly interpreted the parties’ agreement regarding support for Sun’s Java Native Interface (JNI) and compatibility tests for Microsoft® compiler modes.

“We are continuing to move ahead with our compliance effort while the appeals court considers our motion, and we continue to believe that once all of the facts are presented in court, Microsoft’s action will be shown to be pro-competitive, good for consumers and within the rights of our license agreement,” Burt stated.

The appeals brief filed by Microsoft can be found on the company’s Web site at .

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