A four-day federal court trial ended Friday over Novell's claims it is owed $19.9 million by Lindon-based SCO for licensing Unix without Novell's consent to Sun Microsystems, Microsoft and other, smaller companies. U.S. District Court Judge Dale Kimball, who heard the case without a jury, said he would render a verdict as soon as possible.

With that decision, SCO should be able to appeal Kimball's ruling last year that Novell retained rights to versions of Unix created before Novell's 1995 sale of the software system. SCO contends the case should have gone to trial on its original claims that Novell was interfering with its ownership of Unix.

"We're looking forward to our day in court," said SCO Group President and CEO Darl McBride, who attended final arguments. "All we're looking for is a hearing on the facts."

McBride also said Kimball's decision could affect the new reorganization plan SCO is preparing to file in Delaware, where the company filed for bankruptcy last year. A large award to Novell by Kimball could complicate the proposed reorganization, in which a firm called the Stephen Norris Capital Partners is proposing to provide capital to the company, assume majority ownership and take it private.

SCO was thrown into bankruptcy by Kimball's August ruling and falling revenues from its Unix products.

The other possible effect of Kimball's verdict - assuming it is upheld on appeal - could be to provide Novell with ammunition to go after Sun and Microsoft over licensing agreements with SCO that Novell claims were improper. Letters were introduced in the trial in which Novell told those two software companies that Novell did not recognize agreements with SCO and believed they might be exposed to claims by Novell. In Microsoft's case, that could include a wide range of products that have some Unix software code in them.

In closing arguments, Novell attorney Eric Acker told Kimball that Novell is entitled to $19.9 million in fees that SCO collected largely from Sun Microsystems and Microsoft because those licenses violated the terms of the 1995 sale, as Kimball ruled previously.

But Stuart Singer, attorney for The SCO Group, said under that sale agreement, SCO had the ability to license older versions of Unix if they were "incidental" to the newest versions of the operating system the company was marketing.

Testimony by SCO employees, who had worked for 20 years or more with Unix, including at Novell, showed that Novell never previously tried to collect those revenues, Singer said. In fact, he added, testimony and evidence showed that Novell even agreed at one point that SCO had the right to license the older system as part of the sale of a new product.

tharvey@sltrib.com

What's next?

Judge Dale Kimball will issue a verdict on whether Novell owes The SCO Group up to $19.9 million. SCO plans to appeal to the 10th Circuit Court an Aug. 10 decision by Kimball awarding Novell rights to the Unix before a 1995 sale.