USL V. BSDi - USL's Complaint

USL's Complaint

In the lawsuit, Unix System Laboratories alleged that:

• The Regents of the University of California, by releasing NET-2 "based upon, substantially copied from, or derived from proprietary UNIX", had
  • violated USL's software license with UC Berkeley;
  • violated USL's copyright on UNIX;
  • divulged USL's trade secrets by making public "the methods or concepts used therein".
• BSDi had known UC Berkeley had no right to release the NET-2 source code (and had in fact induced the University into releasing the code), so by distributing code based on it had knowingly violated USL's copyright.
• UC Berkeley's claim in the announcement of the release of NET-2 that it "requires no previous license from AT&T" was false, and an illegal deceptive trade practice.
• BSDi's claim in their advertising and software license that BSD/386 and the NET-2 code it was derived from "contained no AT&T licensed code" was false, so BSDi was guilty of false advertising and deceptive trade practices.
• BSDi's 1-800-ITS-UNIX telephone number violated USL's trademark on UNIX.

On these grounds, USL asked the court for a preliminary injunction that would bar BSDi and UC Berkeley from distributing the NET-2 software until the outcome of the case was known.

Many of the trial documents of this case are sealed or unavailable, including the majority of those submitted by USL. Some of those that are available have had portions removed as a term of the case settlement. However, in November 2004, a copy of the USL v. BSDi settlement agreement became available to the public: see Terms of the settlement.