Action by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday clears the way for a trial in Utah in a dispute between The SCO Group and Novell Inc. over the ownership of the copyrights to the Unix computer operating system.

Novell had asked the appeals court to revisit its decision to overturn a lower court ruling that had gone in the company's favor, but the court turned back the petition. Novell also had requested that all the court's judges, not just the three who heard the original appeal, participate in a rehearing.

"As no member of the panel and no judge in regular active service on the court requested that the court be polled, that petition is also denied," Court Clerk Elisabeth Shumaker wrote for the court.

The SCO Group declined comment Wednesday. Novell said in an e-mail statement only that it "is considering the next steps in the appeal process." The company with offices in Provo said it would not elaborate.

In August, the three-judge panel overturned an August 2007 decision by U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball, who had ruled that Novell, and not SCO, owned the Unix copyright.

SCO had sued Novell in 2004 after Novell said its ownership of Unix invalidated SCO's $1 billion lawsuit filed the previous year against IBM.

In its losing petition with the appeals court, Novell had argued that the three-judge panel erred because federal law requires that the transfer of copyright ownership be specific in a sale contract. In the

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SCO-Novell case, the contract with which Novell sold the Unix computer operating system to a company eventually purchased by The SCO Group is somewhat ambiguous and contradictory on the transfer.

But The SCO Group produced witnesses on both sides of the contract negotiations who said the intent was clearly to transfer the copyrights in the Unix sale. The appeals court panel ruled there was sufficient evidence to back SCO's position that the case should be heard in trial, where the issue could be decided.

Kimball recused himself from the case after the 10th Circuit ruling, and Judge Ted Stewart has been assigned to take it over. However, whether the trial will occur is up in the air.

SCO filed for bankruptcy shortly after Kimball's ruling, and a bankruptcy judge now controls the company's fate. That judge also appointed a trustee -- attorney and former federal judge Edward Cahn -- to oversee the company, and it is not yet known whether he will agree to continue the litigation.

Former SCO CEO Darl McBride, who was dismissed from his post on Monday by Cahn, said he thought Cahn might opt to settle the cases for less than what McBride believes they are worth to SCO.

The SCO-Novell dispute is closely related to SCO's lawsuit against IBM in which the Lindon company claims IBM violated its copyright by using Unix software codes as the basis to make the rival Linux system a commercially viable product. That case has been stalled because of the bankruptcy and Kimball's ruling in the Novell case.

tharvey@sltrib.com