IBM has taken the decision to drop its case against SCO in patent infringement disputes. The aim of the move is no doubt to speed up the outcome of their ongoing legal dispute. The claims were in countersuit to SCO's lawsuit that alleged IBM has infringed its heavily disputed patents over the open-source operating system, Linux. Nevertheless, the legal battles between these two companies continue, and continue bitterly. No less than eight IBM counterclaims against SCO remain, including breach of contract and violation of the GNU General Public Licence. This stuff will be going on for years, perhaps not even properly heating up until 2007 at least.
"It will speed this farce up a bit. SCO was saying that because of the patent counterclaims, they needed discovery, more depositions," said Pamela Jones, editor of the Groklaw.net website. "SCO has no money to pay damages or royalties due to dropping sales figures, so it doesn't matter to IBM to drop them."