From Deseret News archives:

SCO owes Novell $2.55 million in royalties, judge rules

Published: Thursday, July 17, 2008 1:19 p.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
SCO Group Inc., the bankrupt software developer that claims to own copyrights to the Unix operating system, owes Novell Inc. $2.55 million in unpaid royalties, a judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball in Salt Lake City said Wednesday that SCO wasn't authorized to enter into a licensing agreement with Sun Microsystems Inc. and should turn over the royalties it received. He rejected other royalty claims by Novell over a Microsoft Corp. contract. SCO said Novell had asked for more than $20 million.

Last year, Kimball ruled that Waltham, Mass.-based Novell, not SCO, owned the copyrights to the Unix operating system and that an agreement between the two companies only gave SCO limited rights. That decision forced SCO, based in Lindon, to seek bankruptcy protection in September.

The dispute began when SCO claimed IBM had included the Unix code in the freely available Linux operating system that competes with Microsoft's Windows. It was demanding billions of dollars in damages from users of the Linux system.

Novell publicly disputed SCO's rights, and SCO sued for slander, prompting the question over ownership rights. The IBM case was halted after the bankruptcy filing.

Story continues below
SCO said in a statement it is reviewing the decision and the ruling is an "important step" in getting the case before an appeals court. It said the royalties claims rejected by Kimball involved UnixWare or OpenServer sales, "where the bulk of SCO's revenue is earned."

"We continue to disagree with the premise of this trial and believe that Novell is not owed anything, but that they have interfered with SCO's Unix rights," the company said.

In April, a SCO attorney said in court that the company was negotiating to sell its assets to Stephen Norris & Co. Capital Partners LP. SCO has until Aug. 11 to file a reorganization plan that details any proposed sale and describes how the Novell suit may affect creditors.

Recent comments

If you do some research, you'll find Microsoft has invested money in...

l | July 17, 2008 at 10:37 p.m.

What an embarrassment for Ransom Love, former CEO of SCO! SCO was...

Anonymous | July 17, 2008 at 9:52 p.m.

SCO has done all most as much damage to the average consumer that...

Anonymous | July 17, 2008 at 8:23 p.m.

previousnext

Latest comments

Gifts for gamers

There are some games I love not on your list. Arkham Asylum for one.

Daughter: Mitchell fed me my pet

Our parents made my brothers help kill and clean our rabbits before we ate...

Why would you keep it open? I would understand if there was a lot of amazing...

The government will run our health care well? Read Reader's Digest, November...

BCS stable at top, Y. up to 14

TCU stomped on the MWC so they are naturally ready to crush Florida, Alabama...

Jazz win 6th in 7 games

could you understand Dave Locke any more than my mom does and she is not even...

Notre Dame fires Weis

Attending the ND/BYU game 3 years ago in south bend, a couple of things stuck...

I missed the game, actually i heard a little bit of Locke on the radio (man...

Hall's pain reflects self-betrayal

quotes were good: Article was dumb and unnecessary.

Understanding translation process

I believe the art depicting Joseph looking at the plates may possibly be...

Advertisements