Posted on: Friday, August 8, 2003
IBM files countersuit against SCO
By Matthew Fordahl
Associated Press
SAN JOSE, Calif. — IBM has fired back at the SCO Group Inc., saying the small Utah company's claim that it gave away proprietary code to the Linux operating system is false and should be thrown out of court.
In its countersuit filed yesterday, IBM also accused SCO of unfair competition and infringement of Big Blue's patents. The countersuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
SCO, which sued IBM in March, claims to own the rights to key elements of the Unix operating system, which has been licensed to thousands of companies, including IBM.
In its $3 billion suit, SCO alleges that IBM transferred code from its AIX version of Unix to Linux, which is developed by thousands of programmers worldwide.
In the response filed in Utah federal court, IBM asserts SCO devised a "campaign of falsehoods" leading to "the false impression that SCO holds the rights to Unix that permit it to control not only all Unix technology but also Linux."
IBM took issue with SCO's attempts to generate licensing revenue based on alleged infringing code, which SCO has refused to publicly identify.
IBM also accused SCO of violating the GNU General Public License under which Linux is distributed. Until recently, SCO had distributed its own version of Linux that contained allegedly misappropriated code.
In a statement, SCO said IBM's action is an attempt to "distract attention from its flawed business model." SCO issued a similar statement earlier this week after Linux distributor Red Hat Inc. sued the company for "unfair and deceptive actions."
IBM's countersuit claims SCO violated "no fewer than four" of IBM's patents in its UnixWare operating system and other products.
SCO also said IBM's patent claims are the first time the issue has been raised even though some of the allegedly infringing products have been shipping for nearly two decades.
SCO claims to have terminated IBM's license, but IBM continues to sell machines based on both Unix and Linux. IBM said its license, which was acquired years before SCO acquired Unix rights, is not revocable.
