The judgment largely reiterates earlier orders dismissing copyright-infringement, slander and breach-of-contract claims brought by SCO, but it also prevents SCO from being able to dismiss certain claims and then revive those same claims in potential future appeals.

One onlooker sees the ruling, handed down in the U.S. District Court for the district of Utah, as another loss for SCO, which can still appeal the decision.

That makes this another blow for SCO, said Pamela Jones, a paralegal who has closely followed the SCO v. Novell case since its beginning on her Web site. The wording of the final judgment is similar to what Novell suggested to the court as the companies argued the issue, she said.

SCO has lost a number of rulings in the ongoing battle with Novell, including a major loss last year when a judge decided that SCO owes Novell for licensing revenues SCO received from Sun Microsystems and Microsoft.

Prior to that ruling, the long-running dispute served as a threat to Linux users who might have feared legal action from SCO. SCO had charged IBM with copyright infringement over the use of Unix, a charge the court essentially said wasn't valid.