SCO Group Inc. the bankrupt software developer that claims to own copyrights to the Unix operating system, will pursue its lawsuits against Novell Inc. and International Business Machines Corp., a court-appointed trustee for SCO said Friday.

Trustee Edward N. Cahn, a retired federal judge who mediates patent disputes, made his announcement in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.

SCO's claims against IBM and Novell "should be pursued aggressively," Cahn told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross during a hearing.

Gross said today that he appointed Cahn as trustee because the legal fight over Unix is the central issue in the company's bankruptcy case and Cahn has experience in settling such disputes, both as a judge and as a litigator.

SCO filed for bankruptcy after losing a key court ruling in the Unix case, temporarily suspending the copyright battle. In August that ruling was overturned by judges on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeal, who ruled that SCO owns copyrights for Unix.

That appeals court ruling gives SCO a better chance of either settling the case on favorable terms or winning in court, Cahn said.

 


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