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SCO vs. Novell decision overturned

By Jeff Feinman

August 26, 2009 — The United States Court of Appeals overturned a U.S. District Court decision that declared Novell the owner of the Unix and UnixWare copyrights. It is another chapter in an ongoing lawsuit against the SCO Group.

The decision yesterday, based on a close reading of the Unix asset purchase agreement between the two companies, sends the matter to another trial, this time in front of a jury. The appeals court did uphold a ruling that SCO owes Novell royalty payments.

“Novell’s arguments do not convince us that the admissible evidence concerning the ambiguous contract language concerning contract ownership is so one-sided as to warrant summary judgment,” the court wrote in a 55-page ruling. “Because we conclude summary judgment is inappropriate on the question of which party owns the Unix and UnixWare copyrights, we must likewise reverse the district court’s determination.”

The long-running case is over the true ownership of Unix and UnixWare technology following Novell’s sale of part of its Unix business to SCO’s predecessor, Santa Cruz Organization, in 1995. The lawsuit began in 2003, and after much legal maneuvering, District Court Judge Dale Kimball ruled in August 2007 that Novell retained the copyright to Unix. In November 2008, Novell was granted an award of US$2.5 million, which was increased by $918,122, plus $489 per day after Aug. 29, 2008.

SCO also has pending Unix lawsuits against IBM and Red Hat.

While this may be a courtroom victory for SCO, the company is still in financial difficulty. A bankruptcy judge blocked SCO’s motion to sell off most of its products to an investment group called unXis, and the judge appointed a Chapter 11 trustee to oversee the company’s assets.

A call to SCO vice president and general counsel Ryan Tibbetts was not returned.

Related Search Term(s): Novell, SCO, Unix

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