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Novell Responds to SCO's Motion for Judgment/New Trial

By Pamela Jones et al.

At last! Novell responds to SCO's motion for judgment in SCO's favor as a matter of law or for a new trial.

It will not surprise you that they oppose, arguing that SCO is entitled to neither, that its position is ludicrous:

After having first lost on summary judgment, then contending in the Tenth Circuit that it should be given the chance to present its claims to a jury in order to obtain from the jury (rather than the Court) an answer to the foregoing question, and having had full opportunity to present its best case to the jury, SCO now asks the Court to reject and turn aside the jury's verdict because SCO does not like the answer. Judge Kimball found in favor of Novell on summary judgment, the Tenth Circuit reversed that ruling with respect to transfer of the UNIX and UnixWare copyrights, but acknowledged that Novell had "powerful arguments" on its side, and now a jury of twelve Utah citizens has found unanimously that the amended Asset Purchase Agreement did not transfer the copyrights from Novell to SCO. See The SCO Group, Inc. v. Novell, Inc., 578 F.3d 1201, 1215 (10th Cir. 2009) ("We recognize that Novell has powerful arguments to support its version of the transaction, and that, as the district court suggested, there may be reasons to discount the credibility, relevance, or persuasiveness of the extrinsic evidence that SCO presents."). In light of that history, SCO's assertion that the jury's verdict is unreasonable and overwhelmingly against the weight of the evidence is ludicrous.

Full post as published by Groklaw on May 11, 2010 (boomark / email).