Linux Ownership Dispute Finally Settled, Ending 23 Years of Litigation

A long-standing legal dispute over the ownership of Linux has reached its final conclusion. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has affirmed a lower court's judgment, dismissing the last remaining claim from Xinuos. This decision marks the end of 23 years of litigation.

The case began in 1998 when IBM and The Santa Cruz Operation started a joint venture called Project Monterey to develop UNIX-based operating systems. However, Linux arrived and took over as the dominant force, leading to the collapse of Project Monterey.

Xinuos, which acquired some of the rights from SCO Group in 2011, had been fighting for ownership of the code used in Linux. The court's decision states that the claim accrued when IBM took the code in 2001 and that Xinuos should have known about it by 2011 at the latest.

The ruling does not settle whether IBM was entitled to use the code but rather determines that nobody can litigate the question now. IBM has been shipping products built on this code for over a quarter of a century, and still sells mainframes today.