No Motz vs. Motz in Microsoft appeal
eWeek | at | by Mike
The court will hear the appeal of the ruling of U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz in the Microsoft case, but his wife, Judge Diana Gribbon Motz-who sits on the Richmond, Va.-based appeals court bench-will recuse herself, say court officials. Judge Diana Gribbon Motz, a member of the Fourth Circuit, will not sit for the Microsoft appeal because she routinely recuses herself from hearing appeals of rulings made by her husband.
Microsoft's attorneys maintain that Sun is already largely successful with Java in the server and devices spaces and that the company is looking for the court to do what it has been unwilling to do to build its presence in the desktop space.
David Tulchin, an attorney for Microsoft, introduced evidence that a Sun employee had devised a plan for Sun to gain distribution for Java first on 70 percent of the PC market, and then on 95 percent, but that the company did not want to pay the $4 million a year it would take to do so.
Meanwhile, despite the appeal, Microsoft is fueled by rulings in the landmark government case against it, where U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly did not accept recommendations that Microsoft should be forced to distribute Sun's technology.