IBM Corp. has fired back at The SCO Group Inc. with a lawsuit filed late Wednesday asserting that SCO is in violation of the license that governs contributions to the Linux operating system, and that SCO has infringed upon IBM patents, an IBM spokesman said Thursday.
In the lawsuit, filed in Utah, IBM claims that SCO has violated the GPL (general public license) that regulates how the Linux operating system can be used. IBM, based in Armonk, N.Y., also alleges that SCO is violating four IBM patents with some of its products, the spokesman said.
SCO representatives did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
SCO, based in Lindon, Utah, initially filed a suit against IBM in March claiming that IBM has tried to undermine the Unix operating system, the rights to which are owned by SCO, with its Linux development efforts. [See, ” UPDATE – SCO sues IBM over Linux, seeks $1 billion,“ Mar. 7]
SCO announced this week that it will attempt to collect licensing fees from Linux users. [See, “SCO unveils Linux licensing scheme,” Aug. 5]
IBM is online at www.ibm.com.