2010 More Victories in SCO v. Novell Litigation

Following a three week jury trial, W|N's trial team, led by Sterling Brennan and David Wright, recently won a unanimous verdict for Novell in SCO v. Novell, a case widely watched by members of the open source software community. W|N's trial team worked closely with a group of outstanding attorneys from the law firm of Morrison and Foerster. SCO's business model was to convince Linux users to pay license fees to SCO, based on the notion that Linux infringes certain UNIX copyrights, which SCO claimed it had acquired from Novell. Novell stated that it, not SCO, owned the UNIX copyrights, and SCO sued for slander of title, seeking damages of several hundred million dollars. Novell had earlier sought and obtained a summary judgment in the case, where the court ruled that Novell in fact owned the copyrights. SCO appealed to the Tenth Circuit, which reversed and remanded the case for a jury trial. At the conclusion of the three week trial, the jury unanimously agreed that Novell, not SCO, owns the copyrights, thus denying SCO's damage claims.

In post trial rulings, Judge Ted Stewart denied SCO's claims for specific performance and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Judge Stewart also granted Novell judgment on its claim for declaratory judgment.

Based in Salt Lake City, W|N has earned recognition as one of the top intellectual property litigation and patent prosecution firms in the nation. The firm represents a wide array of clients in all areas of intellectual property law, including patent, trademark, copyright, unfair competition, complex commercial litigation and related matters.