InfoWorld: IBM exec: SCO lawsuit a bump in the road

InfoWorld: IBM exec: SCO lawsuit a bump in the road: August 06, 2003: By : Platforms: "The man who helped engineer IBM Corp.'s Linux strategy shared his thoughts on the impact of The SCO Group Inc.'s $3 billion lawsuit against his company during a keynote address at LinuxWorld Conference and Expo Wednesday.
'Throughout history, successful technologies have been well remembered, but few remember the inevitable bumps in the road that they all have to resolve to become successful,' said IBM e-Business on Demand General Manager Irving Wladawsky-Berger, referring to the lawsuit. "

I think this is an instance of IBM showing its true colors -- hey, we have more patents and lawyers than anyone else, and these SCO guys refused to play by our rules, so we'll continue to refuse to directly address their allegations and will instead will seek to destroy the company by forcing them to burn up all of their resources in court.

Perhaps David Boies has a few surprises up his sleeve. I also hope the govt investigates IBM selectively using its patent portfolio as a defense mechanism; e.g., I'd like to know if Red Hat and other Linux players are also in violation of IBM's patents in this context.

Guess which company probably has the second most software-related patents, and probably also has broad IP licensing agreements with every other major company with software IP (except Sun...). Hint: the vendor that stands to gain the most as IBM, SCO, and others turn Linux into an enterprise-radioactive lawyer full-employment act.