In March this year, a jury had reaffirmed that Novell owned the copyrights to the UNIX. SCO sought a re-trial on the grounds that the jury's verdict was not in line with the evidence presented in the case.

That bid has been turned down and it looks like SCO will finally have to give up its bid to sue IBM over contract violation.

The memorandum of decision says, in part: "SCO argues that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law 'because the verdict cannot be squared with the overwhelming evidence and the law.' The Court respectfully disagrees.

"The jury was presented with two versions of the deal between Novell and Santa Cruz, SCO's predecessor in interest. On the one hand, SCO argued that the deal was essentially an acquisition of the UNIX and UnixWare business, wherein Santa Cruz acquired all of the business, including the copyrights.

"Novell, on the other hand, argued that the deal was more complex and that Santa Cruz only acquired the UnixWare business and that Novell retained significant rights in the UNIX business, such as the copyrights and the right to receive SVRX royalties. Evidently, the jury found Novell's version of facts to be more persuasive. This conclusion is well supported by the evidence."

SCO sued IBM in March 2003, alleging that the latter had violated a contract it had with SCO by providing code to the Linux kernel which SCO claimed it owned. SCO also claimed that Linux was an unauthorised derivative of UNIX.

Novell became a part of the imbroglio when it came forward to claim that it owned the copyrights to UNIX, hence making SCO's case untenable. This led to a lengthy court battle between SCO and Novell over the question of who owned the copyrights to UNIX.

SCO's claims were initially defeated in August 2007 when a judge ruled that it did not own the copyrights to UNIX. However, the company appealed and obtained a jury trial. That went against SCO in March this year.