SCO Woes
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Just when things looked bleak for SCO, the skies turned completely black.
Last week, the judge in SCO’s lawsuit against the entire universe tossed out 61% of all SCO’s claims made against IBM. The quantity of the judges
dismissal pales in comparison to the bluntness of her assessment of SCO, their
lawyers, and their claims. When a judge says that you "willfully failed to
comply" with court orders, then you know just how botched your case, and
intoxicated your lawyers are.
To be fair, SCO’s approach to the case was less graceful than a hippo on
roller skates. Their path to discovery showed their hand, which was empty.
In essence their approach was:
- We think IBM violated our patents and copyrights
- We are not bright enough to prove this
- So we want the court to force IBM to give us the evidence we need to win
Right!. And I want a million dollars in small, unmarked bills, non
consecutive serial numbers please.
The judge was fairly confused by this approach to litigation, saying "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’"
I do have to hand it to SCO’s legal team … the very ones who represented Al
Gore in the 2000 election circus (and we all know how well they did on that
case). They concocted the best strategy possible from a losing
proposition. They appear to have used the courts as a financial and PR
hammer, hoping to make the cost of legal defense so great that even the mighty
IBM would buckle.
Idiots. IBM held off the federal government in court for decades.
SCO and their lawyers didn’t even raise a yawn in IBM’s council strategy room.
So now the clock ticks, and in the favor of IBM. There are still 112
claims in play, but these are murky at best, and are entangled in the long
history of UNIX intellectual property (which Novell claims is theirs, except for
the bits of BSD UNIX, which belong to nobody). Technical experts could
spend years deciphering the boundaries of any possible IP infraction in the
remaining claims, and a judge not versed in matters technical will take a lot
longer.
Thus, SCO’s mortality clock is ticking.
At their current burn rate, SCO has enough cash to last little more than a
year — less really since their top-line revenues are dropping (on average) 10%
a quarter. All IBM has to do is delay the game as much as possible.
Raise every minute technical and chronological issues imaginable. Ask for
as much discovery of SCO materials as necessary to cross check each of the
remaining 112 claims. Doing so will financially bleed SCO dry, and leave
nothing but a leathery corporate corpse to remind us of the key lesson in
technology and marketing — IP is nice, but market acceptance is essential.
Invention and market share are the true cornerstone of success.
It also teaches us not to kick a giant in their shin. That just annoys
them.
