against Novell on January 20, 2004. Filed in Utah state court, the lawsuit requested both preliminary and permanent injunctions assigning all of Novell's Unix copyright registrations to SCO and forcing Novell to retract all of their claims to the Unix code. United States District Court for the District of Utah Novell removed the lawsuit to the Federal court system on February 6, 2004. This removal was upheld in the court's June 9 ruling. On February 10, 2004, Novell filed a motion to dismiss the case. Novell requested dismissal for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. Novell argued that: SCO did not show a valid transfer of copyright ownership, because the Asset Purchase Agreement was merely a promise to assign under specific circumstances (SCO's demonstration that copyrights were "required" to exercise other rights under the contract), and that the Agreement is therefore—by law—not sufficient to transfer the copyrights to SCO; and SCO did not specify specific special damages required for such a claim. In response, SCO filed several memoranda opposing Novell's motion to dismiss the case. Additionally, SCO filed a motion to remand the case back to State court. Novell countered that, because the case would hinge upon interpretation of federal copyright law, it should be tried in federal court. On May 9, 2004, federal Judge Dale A. Kimball heard both parties' arguments and took both motions under advisement. Judge Kimball denied SCO's motion to remand and partially granted Novell's motion to dismiss on June 9, 2004, on a pleading technicality. The case was dismissed without prejudice, which allowed SCO to amend their complaint to include properly pleaded special damages. Novell's countersuit On July 29, 2005, Novell filed a countersuit against SCO claiming slander of title, breach of contract, failure to remit royalties, and failure to conduct audit obligations. Novell sought damages in excess of SCO's net worth, and, as SCO was quickly burning through its assets and cash on hand, Novell asked the court to sequester this money from SCO so that it would not be spent before the resolution of the case. Novell also asked the court to attach SCO's assets pending adjudication of their claims. Novell accused SCO of licensing Unix System V Release 4 to Microsoft and Sun Microsystems without then sending Novell the 95% of the license fees as required by the APA. In the counter-claim, Novell stated that SCO had