Now that the Novell vs SCO case is all but won by Novell, will
Microsoft and Sun sue SCO? Â Remember back in 2003 when Microsoft / Sun
bought licenses to Unix code, patents and copyrights? If it turns out
SCO did not have the right to sell these, will Microsoft / Sun ask for
their money back? Isn’t selling something you don’t actually own considered fraud?
 SVJN asks some similar and probably more interesting questions on Linux-Watch.Â
Of course, if the court rules that Novell, and not SCO, owns Unix’s IP, then Sun may face a very interesting time negotiating with Novell over the rights to OpenSolaris. At the same time, this suggests another interesting possibility regarding Novell’s patent deal with Microsoft. After all, Microsoft did pay Novell $108 million for patent rights. Could Microsoft have been paying for rights that concern Unix?
He asks, in their deal with Novell, was Microsoft really just re-buying Unix
rights they thought they already “owened” from their SCO Deal? Will
Sun feel the need to relicense these rights from Novell now?
I doubt either group needed those rights, but if Sun/Microsft felt they needed the rights back then, Novell might have seen recent events as an openning to get the cooperation they wanted from Microsoft for their paravirtualization efforts, as well as make a nice chunk of change.Â
Now the real question is what the Microsoft could have gotten from Xandros? Does Xandros have any patents / rights Microsoft would want? or is it the otherway around in this case? More likely Microsoft just wanted another example for their patent FUD campaign.
