IBM's Counterclaim 10 Outlines 5 Ways SCO's Wrong

ColonelZen writes "My article at IPW reads: But, however slowly, the wheels of justice do grind on. The discovery phase of SCO v. IBM is now complete, and as per the court's schedule the time to raise Summary Judgment issues is now. And IBM has indeed raised them ... such that it is very possible that all of SCO's claims against IBM could wind up dismissed piecemeal in those motions. ... Yesterday, IBM's redacted memo in support of CC10 hit Pacer. ... This is 102 pages detailing five independent but overlapping, direct and powerfully detailed reasons why SCO's claims of Linux infringement against its code are nonsense."

Comments

The SCO mess is almost over

[Animats]

The reason this has been such a slow process is that SCO is the plaintiff, and they're stalling. Usually, the plaintiff, who initiated the case, is pushing the case forward, while the defendant tries to stall. This case is backwards.

But stalling only works for so long. SCO was able to drag out pretrial discovery for years. But now, discovery is over. No more surprises. No more "we'll disclose the evidence when the time comes" from SCO. That deadline has past. Now the pace picks up. Here's the final part of the case schedule, as set by the court:

• 17-Mar-06 Close of All Remaining Discovery (DONE)
• 19-May-06 Initial Expert Reports (DONE)
• 17-Jul-06 Opposing Expert Reports (DONE)
• 28-Aug-06 Rebuttal Expert Reports (DONE)
• 22-Sep-06 Final Deadline for Expert Discovery (DONE)
• 25-Sep-06 Dispositive Motions Summary Judgment Motions (DONE)
• 13-Oct-06 Responses to Requests for Admissions (DONE)
• 25-Oct-06 Oppositions to Dispositive Motions Summary Judgment Motions
• 24-Nov-06 Reply Briefs on Dispositive Motions (Reply Memoranda)
• 12-Jan-07 Rule 26(a)(3) Disclosures
• 19-Jan-07 Final Pretrial Order
• 22-Jan-07 Deadline for Exchanging Proposed Jury Instructions
• 26-Jan-07 Motions in Limine
• 30-Jan-07 Special Attorney Conference and Settlement Conference
• 05-Feb-07 Oppositions to Motions in Limine
• 09-Feb-07 Reply Briefs on Motions in Limine
• 26-Feb-07 5-week Jury Trial

Notice how the events come closer and closer together as the trial date approaches and the judge becomes more directly involved.

The next exciting moments will come in late November or early December, when the judge decides the summary judgement motions. SCO will then be worse off than they are now; the only question is how much worse off.