SCO.com: SCO Reiterates Ownership of Unix Intellectual Property
and Prepares to Press Copyright Claims
“The SCO Group, Inc. today reiterated its ownership of UNIX
intellectual property, source code, claims and copyrights and has
made all of the documents surrounding the companies ownership of
UNIX and UnixWare available for public viewing at www.sco.com/novell. The Web site
includes access to the asset purchase agreement, the amendments to
the asset purchase agreement, and the joint press release that was
issued at the time SCO purchased the UNIX assets from Novell in
1995. The press release confirms that SCO purchased the UNIX ‘IP’
along with the UNIX business and source code, among other
things.“The asset purchase agreement, signed by Novell and SCO
executives in September 1995, as amended, states that all of the
following transferred to SCO:
- “All UNIX rights and ownership
- “All claims against any parties relating to any right, property
or asset included in the UNIX business- “All UNIX source code
- “All UNIX contracts, copyrights, and licenses…”
Novell: Novell’s Unique Legal Rights
On an unannounced page (http://www.novell.com/licensing/indemnity/legal.html)
within the new indemnification section of the Novell Web site, the
Utah company has collected PDF documents of all of its
correspondence with The SCO Group since May of 2003.
The page also includes the copyrights that Novell holds that the
company believes holds its claim on UNIX rights.
No official announcement has been made on this particular page,
save the initial announcement made about the indemnification
program late yesterday. It should be noted that legal analysis site
Groklaw has reported on the page and site participants are
beginning to
research and translate to text this set of documents.