In a filing in its ongoing case against IBM Corp, Lindon, Utah-based SCO said its claims are separate and apart from IBM’s Linux activities and asked to dismiss or stay IBM’s request for a declaratory judgment that its Linux activities do not infringe SCO’s copyright until the completion of SCO’s case against Linux user AutoZone Inc.

Earlier this week AutoZone filed a request with the Nevada court to delay its court case to allow for the completion of SCO’s case against IBM, as well as separate court cases covering claims by previous Unix System V code owner Novell Inc that it retained rights over the code, and also a legal challenge by Linux distributor Red Hat Inc.

The Red Hat case was itself recently delayed until the completion of SCO’s action against IBM, which is not currently scheduled to go to trial until March 2005, meaning it could be years until SCO’s original allegations that Linux contains its copyrighted code reach court.

The company first sued IBM in March 2003 when it accused IBM of infringing its intellectual property and copying Unix System V code to the Linux operating system, but dropped that claim in February in favor of claims that IBM breached contract by contributing code from its AIX and Dynix Unix flavors to Linux and breached copyright by continuing to ship AIX and Dynix after SCO withdrew its Unix license.

In March, IBM requested a declaratory judgment that IBM does not infringe, induce infringement of, or contribute to the infringement of any SCO copyright through its Linux activities, including its use, reproduction and improvement of Linux.

In its recent filing, SCO called that an entirely new claim, adding: These issues are being litigated in a case filed by SCO against AutoZone in federal district court in Nevada… This newly added counterclaim raises issues separate and apart from the primary breach of contract and other direct claims and counterclaims in this case.

SCO sued auto parts retailer AutoZone in March 2004 alleging that AutoZone violated SCO’s Unix copyrights by running versions of Linux that contain its Unix System V code and now appears to believe that the AutoZone case is the best environment to try its claims that Linux contains its copyrighted code.

If the various courts approve the various requests for delay, the Linux community will have to wait even longer than it had hoped to settle SCO’s allegations.

This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire