SCO said it was "obviously disappointed with the ruling," but also indicated it intends to carry on with its lawsuit against Novell. "Although the district judge ruled in Novell's favor on important issues, the case has not yet been fully vetted by the legal system and we will continue to explore our options with respect to how we move forward from here."

Novell, in a statement, said: "The court's ruling has cut out the core of SCO's case and, as a result, eliminates SCO's threat to the Linux community based upon allegations of copyright infringement of UNIX. We are extremely pleased with the outcome."