Judge knocks back SCO's IBM Linux suit

SCO largely failed to prove stolen code in Linux, judge rules.

A Utah judge has dismissed a large portion of the claims that SCO filed against IBM in its ongoing Linux case.

SCO claims it owns key elements of the intellectual property of the Unix operating system and alleges that parts it have illegally ended up Linux open source distributions.

The company filed a lawsuit against IBM in 2003 demanding billions of dollars in damages for Big Blue's alleged role in the code misuse.

SCO so far has failed to produce much evidence to proof its case, prompting IBM to ask the judge presiding over the case to force the company to do so. After SCO failed to comply, Judge Brooke Wells largely sided with IBM in last week's ruling.

Nearly two thirds of all the items that SCO alleges IBM to have stolen concern misused methods and concepts. But in identifying those cases, SCO failed to identify the source code in which it claimed was violated.

The judge was unimpressed with SCO's case. "It is almost like SCO sought to hide its case until the ninth inning in hopes of gaining an unfair advantage" despite being repeatedly told to put "all evidence on the table", she wrote.

She furthermore scorned SCO's defence, which argued it was not necessary to provide IBM with the disputed code.

"The court finds SCO's arguments unpersuasive. SCO's arguments are akin to SCO telling IBM sorry we are not going to tell you what you did wrong because you already know," she said.