Morrison & Foerster partner Michael Jacobs called the case one of the biggest successes of his career — winning for Novell Inc. in a seven-year copyright suit that aimed squarely at the open-source software movement. One key to victory was to undermine the testimony of 10 former Novell employees, including lawyers and the former chief executive officer.
Software company The SCO Group (now called Technology Services Group Inc.) sought more than $200 million in damages against Novell for alleged infringement of copyrights to the Unix computer operating system, which it claimed it had purchased from Novell in 1995. Open-source developers had built an entire software infrastructure around the disputed technology.
