"In 2003, much of the talk at LinuxWorld Expo & Conference was of the increasing worry about IP litigation involving Linux and Unix, especially emanating from Lindon, Utah, via The SCO Group. SCO had filed a $5 billion lawsuit the previous March against IBM, contending that Big Blue had knowingly misused and distributed SCO's Unix System V code within its AIX operating system. A lot of not-very-nice words were used last year to describe the litigation that SCO was initiating. This year, things were different; the name 'SCO' was seldom heard.
"Oh, there are still plenty of SCO-involved lawsuits (IBM, AutoZone, Red Hat, Novell, etc.) shuffling their way through the courts. No solid evidence has turned up during legal 'discovery' that incriminates IBM as being a patent-dodger or license denigrator. In fact, IBM has poured a great amount of corporate legal talent, time, effort, and money into proving SCO wrong; it has said in so many words that it intends to beat the rap, no matter how long it takes..."
