SCO loses another round in Unix fight, to pay Novell $2.55M

By Todd R. Weiss, Computerworld, 07/17/08

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At the beginning of its massive legal fight against Linux in 2003 , The SCO Group Inc. imagined a day when companies like IBM, Novell Inc. and others would pay it large amounts of cash for alleged infringements on SCO-owned Unix code.

Instead, even as those legal fights meander through U.S. courts, the tables were turned and SCO Wednesday was ordered to pay US$2.55 million to Novell for collecting Unix licensing revenue from Sun Microsystems Inc. that it wasn't entitled to collect.

In a 43-page decision , which was posted on the Groklaw.com Web site, U.S. District Court Judge Dale A. Kimball in Salt Lake City ruled that the money was owed to Novell under an arrangement made by SCO's predecessor, the former Santa Cruz Operation, which later was bought by Caldera International Inc. and became The SCO Group.

Novell acquired the Unix systems business of AT&T Corp. in the 1980s. Later, Novell broke up and sold its Unix properties in 1994 and 1995, including a deal with the former Santa Cruz Operation.

In Kimball's ruling, the court said that SCO owes the $2.55 million to Novell today through a 1995 Unix purchase agreement. At that time, the Santa Cruz Operation didn't have enough cash to buy all of Novell's Unix business. As part of the deal, Novell allowed the sale to go through with a limitation: It required that Novell would receive 100% of the royalties for Unix System V Release X (SVRX -- all versions) licenses. Those revenues, under the agreement, were to be collected and passed on to Novell, minus a 5% administrative fee that was to be returned by Novell, according to the court ruling.

The $2.55 million award to Novell was for revenue brought in through a subsequent Unix licensing deal that SCO made with Sun Microsystems Inc., which the court ruled was made without proper authorization.

In an unattributed statement following Kimball's ruling, SCO said it continues to believe that it does not owe money to Novell.

"We are reviewing today's ruling by Judge Dale Kimball with our counsel and will be assessing the next steps over the coming days and weeks," the statement said.

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