SUN AND KODAK SETTLE JAVA PATENT DISPUTE: Sun Microsystems will pay Kodak $92 million to settle a patent infringement action in respect of Java, the platform-independent programming language developed by Sun, it was announced yesterday. Kodak had been claiming over $1 billion in damages.

Kodak sued Sun in the US District Court for the Western District of New York in February 2002, alleging that Java infringes on three patents governing, in general terms, the way that different programs and different types of data interact. It argued that Java works in the same sort of way, and last Friday, after a three-week trial, the trial jury agreed.