A judge has accepted the SCO Group"s changes to a lawsuit against IBM that now seeks $5 billion in damages for Big Blue"s alleged moving of Unix intellectual property into Linux.
Because IBM didn"t oppose SCO"s motion to amend its claims--a motion that was "subject to IBM"s right to move against the amended pleadings"--Magistrate Judge Brooke Wells accepted SCO"s new legal attack, he said in a filing Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Utah.
The second amended complaint drops SCO"s claim that IBM misappropriated trade secrets, but adds a charge of copyright infringement. SCO seeks $1 billion in damages for unfair competition and $1 billion for each of four allegations of breaching various contracts by which SCO licensed Unix to IBM and a company Big Blue acquired, Sequent.
When SCO"s suit against IBM began, in March 2003, it sought more than $1 billion in damages. In April, an amendment to the suit raised the figure to $3 billion.
"The amount is starting to become breathtaking," said John Ferrell, an intellectual-property attorney at law firm Carr & Ferrell, referring to the damages SCO and its attorney, David Boies, are seeking.