SCO And IBM Await Judge's Decision 2SCO And IBM Await Judge's Decision 2

While the legal dispute between SCO Group and IBM over Linux isn't scheduled to reach trial for another year, the stakes and issues raised could look very different than they do today. Although SCO Group continues to allege that IBM has illegally contributed code from Unix-derived operating systems AIX and Dynix to enhance Linux, SCO appears to be abandoning its earlier claims that IBM misappropriated SCO-owned trade secrets.

SCO Group has also increased damages sought from $3 billion to $5 billion. It's the second amendment to damages SCO has sought in its case. The first came in June, when the company raised the damages it's seeking from $1 billion.

IBM and SCO Group each claims the other side still owes it clarification regarding their dueling Linux lawsuits. The companies met Friday in the District of Utah's U.S. District Court, but a judge won't rule on their claims until later this week at the earliest.

Both sides believe the other side still owes them information, says Brent Hatch, a partner with Hatch, James & Dodge LLP, one of the firms representing SCO Group.

Last week, SCO filed a Motion for Leave to File Amended Pleadings. Under the motion, SCO is seeking to add claims against IBM that have arisen since SCO first filed its lawsuit last March. The original suit alleges that IBM contributed a portion of the source code to the Linux kernel. SCO's motion states that the proposed amendments to the suit "reflect the continuing investigation into the allegations and issues raised by IBM in its 11-count counterclaim, including four separate claims of patent infringement, and serve to better frame the issues for this Court's determination."

IBM countersued in August, alleging that SCO violated the GNU General Public License and that SCO doesn't have the right to revoke IBM's Unix license. IBM also alleges that SCO has directly infringed on four IBM patents related to SCO's UnixWare, Open Server, SCO Manager, and Reliant HA clustering software products.