In 2003, SCO filed a lawsuit against IBM, alleging that IBM had stolen proprietary source code from UNIX to strengthen its Linux products and service.
SCO???s suit sought $1bln in damages.
This lawsuit was monumental in that a win for SCO could effectively mean that every company in the world selling any kind of Linux based product would be liable for damages payable to SCO. SCO knew this and also sued several other companies such as Novell and Red Hat.
The main allegation that Linux used stolen code from UNIX was swiftly disproved in early stages of the court battle. But SCO consistently pursued the case using any legal means to keep it open and keep dragging the defendants into court.
Today, February 11th, 2016, the case was finally closed. The court ruled to disallow further appeals for SCO, and in perfect timing, SCO will also close, 9 years after they filed for bankruptcy protection in 2007.