Microsoft filed a notice of appeal Wednesday -- challenging a U.S. District Court judge's ruling that it must stop shipping its Java products by early January.
On November 17, San Jose, California, federal judge Ronald Whyte issued a preliminary injunction, saying Sun Microsystems was likely to prevail in its case against Microsoft. Sun sued Microsoft in October of 1997, charging that the software giant violated copyright infringement and unfair competition laws when it distributed a flavor of Java that was not compatible with Sun's version of the language.
In his ruling last month, Whyte gave the company 90 days to stop shipping software and development tools that contain a non-compliant version of Java.
Microsoft responded by releasing Java products in early December that it said complied with the ruling.
Sun created Java with the hopes that it would be able to run across many different platforms, and the company claims Microsoft's "polluted" version thwarted that mission.
Microsoft will follow its filing with a brief explaining in detail why it thinks Whyte's November ruling was flawed. Meanwhile, the ruling stays in place unless the higher court lifts it.
