Judge overturns 2007 Unix copyright decision

24.08.2009
A federal appeals court Monday overturned a that Novell owns the Unix code, and the ruling now clears the way for SCO to pursue a $1 billion copyright infringement case against IBM.

In a 54-page decision, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said it was reversing the 2007 summary judgment decision by Judge Dale Kimball of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, which of Unix and UnixWare copyrights.

SCO CEO told the Salt Lake City Tribute that the decision was a “” and that it would enable the company to continue its lawsuit against IBM and a related suit against Novell.

SCO sells Unix-based software technology and mobile services, including UnixWare for enterprise applications and SCO OpenServer for small and midsize businesses. Just last week, the company released a virtualized version of its OpenServer 5.0.7 Unix operating system.

Monday, the Circuit Court also ruled on other issues in the case and remanded those for trial, including issues around Novell’s alleged duty to transfer ownership rights to the computer code in question.