The complicated dispute dates back to February 1985 when IBM entered into a licence agreement with the then owner of the UNIX system, AT&T, in order to produce its own AIX operating system. The agreements required that IBM hold the UNIX software code in confidence, and prohibited unauthorised distribution or transfer.
In 1992, AT&T sold UNIX to Novell. Then, in 1995, the Santa Cruz Operation purchased rights in UNIX from Novell, including source code, source documentation, software development contracts, licenses and other intellectual property.
The initial contract specifically excluded copyright from the sale, while an amendment, dated October 1996, again specifically excluded copyrights, with the exception of “the copyrights and trade marks owned by Novell as of the date of the [contract] required for Santa Cruz Operations to exercise its rights with respect to the acquisition of UNIX and Unixware technologies."
The Santa Cruz Operation sold on these rights to Caldera International, which subsequently changed its name to The SCO Group.
In a series of lawsuits filed since March 2003, SCO has claimed intellectual property rights to parts of UNIX and Linux.
At first, it focused on suing IBM, accusing Big Blue of letting parts of UNIX ‘slip’ into the Linux operating system in breach of SCO’s rights. Then SCO looked to end users, suing both AutoZone and DaimlerChrysler for damages and an injunction against their use of what SCO said was its source code.
It then became embroiled in a separate action against Novell, concerning the exact scope of the rights acquired by SCO in 1995.
Initially, SCO claimed to own patents in UNIX; now it talks only of copyrights and "other" intellectual property rights. But Novell believes that it still owns important copyrights in the UNIX system, and has publicised the fact.
In January 2004, SCO sued Novell, alleging that:
Novell has been attempting to have the action dismissed, but failed for the second time on Monday.
“Even though Novell argues that it has evidence to support its alleged good faith basis for claiming ownership of the UNIX copyrights, the proper place to introduce that evidence and argue its significance is not on a motion dismiss,” wrote Judge Dale Kimball of the US District Court in Utah, finding that the case should go to trial.
The case will now proceed to the discovery stage of the suit – the means by which one party ensures that it is given access to critical documents held by the other side.
