Microsoft Java Injunction Reinstated

Microsoft Corp. was again barred from giving software developers versions of Sun Microsystems Inc.’s Java programming language that fail Sun’s tests for wide compatibility.

U.S. District Judge Ronald M. Whyte this week reinstated a 1998 preliminary injunction in Sun’s ongoing lawsuit charging that Microsoft deliberately polluted Java to squelch competition to its Windows operating system.

A Microsoft spokesman said the decision won’t have any effect on the company because Microsoft continued to comply with Whyte’s original order even after the appeals court lifted it.