The convoluted dispute began in March last year when SCO sued IBM, accusing Big Blue of letting parts of UNIX 'slip' into the Linux operating system in breach of SCO's rights. SCO originally sued IBM for $1 billion, increased the claim to $3 billion, then gained approval for another increase to $5 billion.
In April, IBM asked the District Court in Salt Lake City to declare that it has not infringed any SCO copyright through its Linux activities – an attempt by Big Blue to short circuit the most controversial development in the history of open source software.
Last Tuesday IBM followed this up with a motion for summary judgment – i.e. judgment without trial, arguing that SCO has produced no evidence of copyright infringement and should therefore not be allowed to proceed with the claim.
The copyright claim is the foundation for much of SCO's case against IBM. If the court grants the motion then there is a good chance that the whole suit will fail. It will also have an impact on other litigation involving SCO.
This includes a counter suit by IBM against SCO, the filing of a suit against SCO by Linux distributor Red Hat, and actions between Novell and SCO over who owns what intellectual property rights in the UNIX system. In March this year SCO extended the scope of its suits to Linux users, suing both AutoZone and DaimlerChrysler.
According to an IDG News Service report, Blake Stowell, spokesman for SCO, commented:
"Our lawyers are still going through much of the evidence IBM turned over as part of the discovery process. I'm confident that there is still other evidence that will come forward in order for us to be able to prove those claims".
