Novell intends to file a petition for a writ of certiori, asking the Supreme Court to review the 10th Circuit Court of Appeal's
ruling in
SCO v. Novell, and it has filed a motion with the Appeals Court asking for a 90-day stay so it can file the cert petition with the Supreme Court:
10/27/2009 - Open Document - [9705604] Motion filed by Appellee Novell, Inc. for stay of the Mandate Pending the Filing of a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari in the Supreme Court of the United States. Served on: 10/27/2009. Manner of service: clerk.
A petition for certiorari
means this:
A document which a losing party files with the Supreme Court asking the Supreme Court to review the decision of a lower court. It includes a list of the parties, a statement of the facts of the case, the legal questions presented for review, and arguments as to why the Court should grant the writ.
The Supreme Court can grant it or deny it, but Novell says it believes there is a very good chance it will be granted. It is asking the Appeals Court to grant the 90-day stay, so it can prepare its petition, but technically speaking, it can file the cert writ no matter what the appeals court says about the stay. But it would be difficult to do that and go back to Utah for the trial simultaneously. It would be weird for the court to deny the stay, in that normally courts don't like to see issues getting set up so that divergent rulings are possible in the same litigation.
The Supreme Court receives many more cert petitions than it grants, but this one seems very possible, since the ruling is so different from and even conflicts with other copyright rulings. Here's how Novell puts it:
This Court's decision constitutes a departure from decisions of other federal courts of appeals that have confronted the important question of copyright law at issue in this case.
A departure isn't a big enough word, frankly. SCO opposes the stay, natch.
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