Novell's trial brief and proposed jury instructions have been filed in SCO v. Novell. Of course, the parties were asked to try to file the latter jointly, and they have done so a little bit on two instructions, but on others, they couldn't agree so they tell the court they will file separately the rest of the proposed jury instructions. Novell has done so.

Chris Brown's first report of the day is in, filed by phone during an extended break in the court session. The jury got to hear today about Judge Dale Kimball's earlier court rulings. We have all the important rulings in a new, special section on Groklaw's Novell Timeline page, so you can follow along.

Novell has filed a Notice of Filing of Offer of Proof Regarding Prior Inconsistent Declaration of Steven Sabbath. It is making a record that SCO was allowed to present testimony in direct examination that Novell knew was contradicted by deposition testimony, but then Novell couldn't tell the jury about it, because of rulings by the judge.

On March 22, Judge Ted Stewart, presiding over the SCO v. Novell jury trial, gave the parties a final set of jury instructions, asking for their feedback. The parties have done so, each suggesting tweaks to the wording.

Both SCO and Novell have begun to file their additional pretrial briefs, stemming from the discussion at the most recent hearing. Novell has filed a Request for Judicial Notice of Prior Factual Findings and the parties jointly submit a Submission Addressing Allocation of Issues for Bench and Jury Trial. SCO has filed a Brief Regarding Issues to be Tried in Equity by the Court.

They played videos in court today, day 4 of SCO v. Novell's jury trial. SCO claims it has a surprise witness, like that surprises anyone that has been following SCO's legal ways. There was a dispute about that, but I gather it will happen eventually.

The jury decision from the District Court of Utah ruled in favor of Novell, which could serve to end SCO's legal actions against Novell, IBM and the broader Linux community.

The parties are still going back and forth over pre-trial issues, specifically over the jury instructions and the verdict form. We may see even more on this, because jury instruction and the verdict form come at the very end, so there is still time to try to get it just right. Not that either side will be entirely happy with the result.

Novell has filed its Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law in SCO v. Novell, one of the two documents that the judge has been waiting for prior to reaching his decision on the issues he was to decide after the jury reached its verdict on copyright ownership: