Long-Running Linux Ownership Dispute Effectively Ends

A long-running dispute over Linux ownership has effectively ended after the US Court of Appeals rejected Xinuos' appeal. The company had claimed that IBM and Red Hat improperly contributed Project Monterey UNIX code to Linux, but its chances of extracting damages or royalties are now slim. According to court records, only 0.03% of rehearing petitions are granted.

The case dates back to 1998 when IBM partnered with Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) to build a unified UNIX running on multiple processor architectures. SCO's contribution was related to Intel x86 code, but the project eventually waned in favor of Linux. In the early 2000s, SCO first complained that IBM contributed jointly-developed UNIX code to Linux without having proper rights to do so.

The dispute has spanned decades, with multiple lawsuits and settlements along the way. Xinuos bought SCO's UNIX business and IP in 2011, and in 2021 settled with IBM for $14.25 million. The company then sued IBM and Red Hat again, claiming that IBM knowingly breached its non-exclusive license by contributing Monterey code to Linux.