Last week Novell filed a motion requesting that the court lift SCO"s bankruptcy stay so that Novell can obtain UNIX licensing royalties wrongfully retained by SCO. Novell has also filed a motion requesting that SCO turn over all future royalties that it collects from selling licenses for Novell"s intellectual property.
SCO filed for Chapter 11 shortly after federal district judge Dale A. Kimball issued a ruling declaring that Novell owns the original UNIX copyrights. The ruling effectively put an end to SCO"s slander of title lawsuit against Novell, which was based on SCO"s allegation that Novell had wrongfully claimed ownership of UNIX. Judge Kimball also determined that, as stipulated in the original agreement between the two companies, SCO owed Novell 95 percent of the royalties collected from Novell"s intellectual property—which includes a considerable portion of the $25 million paid to SCO by Sun and Microsoft.