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SCO's Response to IBM's Objections to SCO's Proposed Partial Judgment ~pj Updated

By Pamela Jones et al.

SCO has filed its response [PDF] to IBM's objections to SCO's Proposed Partial Judgment order [PDF], which SCO had improperly titled "Proposed Judgment Dismissing SCO's Claims Mooted by the Final Judgment in SCO v. Novell".

SCO says, OK, you can remove the word "moot" from the proposed order, despite stubbornly insisting it was correct wording: "Because the Novell judgment resolved the claims that SCO agrees can be dismissed, those claims no longer present a controversy and thus can be properly said to be mooted by the Novell judgment." In short, SCO doesn't know what "moot" means, but IBM taught them that the right terminology would be "decided on the merits, meaning SCO can't sue later on the same claims, and SCO says, fine, change the wording. IBM caught them in a trick, or just sloppy wording, and the parties move on. And OK, SCO agrees to change the wording about Project Monterey agreement being a joint venture, which it wasn't, and almost everything else IBM objected to SCO agrees to change. IBM is right, SCO agrees, that almost all of the claims in SCO's complaint are dead as a door nail now, because of Novell's victory over SCO regarding the ownership of copyrights, SCO concedes.

In fact, SCO's revised proposed order [PDF] is almost identical to the one IBM proposed [PDF], except for one added paragraph by SCO:

The following SCO claims remain ripe for adjudication by the Court: SCO's Unfair Competition claim (Count VI) concerning Project Monterey, SCO's Interference with Contract claim (Count VII), and SCO's claim for Interference with Business Relationships (Count IX).

I doubt IBM wants that as part of the order, in that IBM is planning to contest that any of them survived the Novell judgment. That will be handled in the forthcoming IBM motion on this very topic, which SCO knows is the next step. In effect, SCO is asking for the judge to agree that these claims are still standing. SCO never quits with the tricks, but what does it mean? The SCO response reveals what SCO's plan is, as I'll show you.

Finally, SCO says it also attached a black-lined version of its proposed order showing the changes, but it is not, in fact, black-lined.

Full post as published by Groklaw on July 08, 2013 (boomark / email).