IBM asks court to call off SCO suit

It appears that IBM is confident about how its legal battle with The SCO Group will play out in its favor.

Last week, IBM filed a motion in the U.S. District Court in Utah, asking the court to enter a “declaratory judgment” in the case – basically saying that IBM did not steal Unix code from SCO and put it into Linux, nor did it break any contracts with the company.

Legal experts say this maneuver indicates that Big Blue’s legal team has researched the information in the case, and found that the SCO claim is not provable. If the declaratory judgment IBM is seeking were issued, it would give the case to IBM without ever going to trial. If evidence existed that IBM did infringe on SCO’s patents or that a contract was breached, IBM would have sat tight until the trial, legal experts say.

SCO sued IBM for $1 billion a year ago, accusing IBM of using code from its Unix-based AIX operating system to improve Linux technology for enterprises. SCO claims it was damaged, since it claims to own the right to Unix, which was invented by AT&T. SCO has since upped the amount of its suit to $5 billion. SCO pushed its claims further in 2003, saying that no one can use Linux without a license from SCO, as a result of IBM’s alleged actions.