SCO Lawsuit Dismissed

A Michigan court last week dismissed most of SCO Group's lawsuit against DaimlerChrysler Corp., in which SCO accused the German automaker of breaking the terms of its Unix System V licensing contract.

SCO filed the suit in March after the automaker failed to respond to a December request from SCO for Unix licensees to re-certify the terms of their contracts. DaimlerChrysler then certified in early April that, for the last seven years, it hasn't used the version of Unix it licensed.

The one remaining issue is whether SCO can show it suffered damages as a result of DaimlerChrysler's delayed response. SCO Group hasn't decided whether it will pursue that remaining element.

The ruling is likely to discourage SCO from suing other Unix licensees that failed to certify their use of the operating system. But the DaimlerChrysler suit addressed different issues than those in lawsuits SCO has filed against IBM, Novell, and Linux customer AutoZone.