The ruling likely will re-open the company’s litigation of IBM, based on a with private equity firm Stephen Norris Capital Partners.

In February of last year, Stephen Norris Capital Partners pumped up to $100 million into SCO believing the rulings against the company could be reversed on appeal to a higher court. The firm’s commitment requires SCO to “aggressively continue” its ongoing litigation against Novell and IBM, as well as another case against AutoZone Inc.

The case traces its root to 1993 when Novell paid more than $300 million to purchase UNIX System Laboratories, which owned the UNIX copyrights and licenses.

Two years later, Novell decided to sell the UNIX business to SCO.

The two have differing stories on whether that sale included ownership of the copyright to the code.