SCO appealing claims dismissals

The SCO Group Inc. is appealing a U.S. magistrate's ruling that stripped many of its claims in a $5 billion lawsuit against IBM Corp.

Magistrate Brooke Wells threw out 182 of SCO's 294 claims last month that assert IBM donated SCO's Unix software code to the freely distributed Linux operating system.

SCO filed an electronic submission late Thursday asking U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball to reverse the magistrate's decision.

SCO attorney Brent Hatch said the appeal argues that Wells confused contract for copyright claims and misread some case law to support her ruling. The Lindon-based company also contends it has a viable case with the 112 remaining claims.

Wells ruled SCO had "willfully failed to comply" with court orders to show IBM which of millions of lines of code in Linux were supposedly misappropriated.

SCO argued that was IBM's job — a position Wells likened to a security guard's accusing a shopper of theft and then demanding the shopper show proof of the stolen merchandise.

IBM spokesman John Charlson said the company doesn't comment on litigation.