This case is not similar at all. Sun's objection to Microsoft's JVM was not that they implemented it, but that they implemented something which was clearly not

This case is not similar at all. Sun's objection to Microsoft's JVM was not that they implemented it, but that they implemented something which was clearly not Java (due to incompatibilities/incompleteness/etc.), but which Microsoft called "Java" anyway. At the time, Sun made no claim whatsoever (that I'm aware of) that third parties could not legally implement JVMs. Oracle is now making the claim that third parties cannot implement their own JVMs without paying Oracle for a license, on grounds that copyright to a language or API specification extends to the right to forbid implementations of those specifications.