Along with AutoZone Inc., DaimlerChrysler AG is now fighting back against The SCO Group Inc.s legal assaults. The automobile giant on April 15 filed a motion to dismiss SCOs case, here in PDF form, at the Circuit Court for Oakland County in Michigan.
But unlike AutoZone—which is striving to delay any action in its case until resolution has been reached in SCOs cases with IBM, Novell Inc. and Red Hat Inc.—DaimlerChrysler aggressively asked the court in its motion for summary disposition to “dismiss plaintiffs complaint with prejudice, award DC its costs and attorneys fees as may be permitted by law, and grant such other relief as may be appropriate.”
In its motion, DaimlerChrysler categorically denies almost all of SCOs claims against it, starting with SCOs claim that it owns the intellectual property rights to Unix. DaimlerChrysler argues repeatedly that SCOs characterizations of DaimlerChryslers Unix license are incorrect, and the company denies all of SCOs allegations based on the license.
More to the point, though, DaimlerChrysler also contends that SCO isnt a party to its Unix license agreements, “and therefore the plaintiff may lack standing to sue.” In addition, DaimlerChrysler says SCO lacks any standing to sue it because Novell has expressly requested SCO to waive any rights it might have to enforce this Unix license.
DaimlerChrysler, still the worlds fifth-largest automobile maker, has been troubled recently. Restructuring expenses for its ailing American Chrysler division have led to a 33 percent decline in its first-quarter profit from a year earlier.
In addition, DaimlerChryslers board recently decided not to bail out troubled Japanese carmaker Mitsubishi Motors. The move brought widespread speculation that DaimlerChrysler CEO Juergen Schrempp would be fired, but the board instead decided to continue backing him.