Open Source Blog

As reported by Groklaw Novell has filed a motion to stay its claims pending a Request for Arbitration it has filed with The Secretariat of the ICC International Court of Arbitration which it says is the necessary course for SCO's copyright claims against SUSE Linux given the joint development agreements that were signed during the formation of the UnitedLinux single Linux distribution by SUSE, SCO, Turbolinux and Conectiva in 2001.

UPDATE

I remember attending the launch of UnitedLinux with the then Caldera CEO Ransom Love and SUSE's then vice president of International business, Gregory Blepp (who later turned up at SCO, but that's another story).

Unfortunately the report of that launch is no longer freely available online, but it does contain a few snippets that are relevant given Novell's call for a stay, for example: "The gang of four is creating a new company, UnitedLinux LLC, which will own the brand and intellectual property for a single version of the Linux open source operating system to be distributed and supported globally by the partners.

"Nuremberg, Germany-based SuSE will be heading up the product development and integration and will therefore own a larger share of the new company, although the four vendors are not breaking out ownership figures at this time." ('Linux Vendors Unite to Target Global Business', ComputerWire, Publication Date: 31 May 2002 - Update again, thanks to Al Thompson, below, for pointing out the article can be found here)

It's also worth looking at the dates involved: UnitedLinux was launched in May 2002, while Caldera completed its acquisition of Santa Cruz Operation's Unix server and services business in May 2001, before appointing Darl McBride as CEO in June 2002, changing its name in August 2002, and unleashing hell in March 2003.

You can also read SCO's take on the UnitedLinux announcement here incidentally.

While UnitedLinux was pronounced dead by SUSE Linux in January 2004, Novell's lawyers have argued that its terms mean the dispute between Novell and SCO over Unix copyright ownership should now be put on hold.

"SCO's new SUSE Linux claims raise issues that are subject to arbitration under the Master Transaction Agreement and United Joint Development Contract signed in May 2002," the company argued in a memorandum to support its motion to stay the case.

"The UnitedLinux members agreed that each member would have a broad license to use the technology included in the UnitedLinux software, including any related intellectual property," it added. Groklaw has all the details.