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 improperly filed copyright registrations in the
United States Copyright Office for UNIX technology covered by SCO's
copyrights;
- Novell has made false and misleading public claims that it, and
not SCO, owns the UNIX and UnixWare copyrights;
- Novell has made false statements with the intent to cause
customers and potential customers to not do business with SCO;
- Novell has attempted, in bad faith, to block SCO's ability to
enforce its copyrights; and
- Novell's false and misleading representations that it owns the
UNIX and UnixWare copyrights has caused SCO irreparable harm to its
copyrights, its business, and its reputation.
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.
