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Report from Denver: The SCO v. Novell Appeals Court Hearing

By Pamela Jones et al.

Here is our eyewitness account of what happened at today's appeals court hearing in the SCO v. Novell appeal, thanks to Groklaw member Clocks, who traveled to Denver, to the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals to attend. Thank you, Clocks. Here's a picture of what the courtrooms there look like, to give you an idea. The hearing was in Courtroom II.

I must caution, as he does, that you can almost never get a definite idea of how a court will rule just from the hearing, and he explains why. I have to say, though, that from his report, it sounds encouraging to me.

Stuart Singer of Boies Schiller argued for SCO, and I gather he did a fabulous job with very little to work with. Considering that Boies Schiller claims it is "way into the red" on SCO, it's interesting that they still sent one of their very best, a partner in the firm. Michael Jacobs of Morrison & Foerster argued for Novell, and he is consistently excellent. Both attorneys, Clocks says, were spectacular to watch.

I know you are dying to know how it went. I'd say from this report that it went very well indeed. Here's the only possible sticky wicket that I see in the report:

McConnell stated something to the effect that the language for the exclusion in Amendment 2 includes all copyrights and trademarks other than the ones "that are required". He also said that he has no problem with the premise that they have not shown what is required and the appeals court likely will not rule on that, but he didn't see how that would not be an issue for trial.

Clocks found some biographical information about the three appeals court justices for us, and I'll put that after his account, after a double row of stars. He also checked today to find out what all those boxes of exhibits Novell filed with the court were, so we could find out if we need them or if we have them already. He says they are the record from the District Court, which heaven only knows we have here on Groklaw in detail.

Full post as published by Groklaw on May 06, 2009 (boomark / email).