SOFWARE LICENSER FORCED INTO BANKRUPTCY
CHICAGO--SCO GROUP INC., filed for bankruptcy afte it failed to convince a federal judge that it owned copyrights to the UNIX operating system. SCO has sued "free" software providers over open codes. In keeping with recent trends in the courts against the owners of intellectual property who attempt to aggressively police their property in the federal courts, district court judges have taken umbrage with companies who attempt to enforce their intellectual property rights. This has become known as the "unfairness doctrine". The trend started with the Black Berry decision where RIM agreed to pay more than $600 million to settle the much-discussed Blackberry patent infringement case. The RIM case set off alarms and now district courts are like pit bulls in favor of larger firms that are being attacked by smaller "rights holders". SCO GROUP Inc is merely the latest victim of the judicial prejudice being leveled against "small" firms that hold the intellectual property rights that "larger" firms choose to infringe. These "larger" firms can still be defeated, but the rights holders must pick their targets more carefully. Leo Stoller is a trademark expert ldms4@hotmail.com
