Sun wins trademark case in UK

Sun Microsystems has won a legal battle against a pair of firms in the UK and the US.

In the UK, the High Court of Justice ruled that M-Tech had imported Sun products into Europe without authorisation. The firm has been ordered to stop importing and give Sun more details about its "activities."

In the US, a federal court ruled that Sun Valley Technical Repair and its owner Joe Faris were counterfeiting Sun products. Faris must "cooperate with Sun" and make a "substantial monetary payment," and still faces criminal charges.

Sun said the cases showed it was willing to take action against IP violations. "Sun is committed to aggressively pursuing those who violate Sun's intellectual property rights and threaten its market integrity," said Bill Mooz, legal director of Sun Microsystems, in a statement.

"Intellectual property theft can take many forms, including the counterfeiting of hardware, the copying and use of software without a license, and representing products or services as genuine when they are not backed by Sun."

He added: "All of these acts not only tarnish Sun's brand, but also can put users of Sun products in the terrible position of depending upon inferior or unlicensed technology in mission-critical environments - without proper warranty or support."

Sun was recently bought by Oracle, a deal which is currently being studied by regulators.