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SCO Motion for a Status Conference in SCO v. IBM

By Pamela Jones et al.

SCO has filed a motion asking for a status conference in the SCO v. IBM litigation. It would like IBM to be blocked from pursuing its copyright counterclaims, while asking the court to let SCO go forward on its contract claims, which SCO now asserts are not affected by the loss it sustained in the SCO v. Novell litigation. That is a puzzling conclusion, in that Novell was ruled to have the unfettered right to waive any such alleged contract violations. And it did long ago do so.

The bankruptcy stay, SCO writes, applies only to litigation against SCO, not SCO suing "IBM and others". Note that "and others". So it would like the court to rule on SCO's summary judgment motions filed years ago, and to the extent IBM has motions regarding two of SCO's claims, regarding SCO's claims for Unfair Competition and for Tortious Interference, they can go forward to a decision. But not the IBM counterclaims. Here's a Groklaw chart of all the pending IBM and SCO summary judgment motions that were blocked by the SCO bankruptcy in 2007.

But, I hear you say, that's not fair. Well. I look at it this way: if SCO started to play fair, it might upset the balance in the universe in the butterfly's wings sense. So it's very careful never to be fair and to stay in character. And let's be real. The only way SCO can win is probably if no one else is allowed to do say or do anything. That's the kind of playing field SCO would like.

The Notice of Hearing sets August 11 at 3:00 PM before Judge Tena Campell as the day and time. So I hope some of you can attend. It should be fun. IBM will certainly have something to say about this latest oily move.

Full post as published by Groklaw on August 07, 2010 (boomark / email).