2021. The SCO heir settled with IBM for $14.25 million. That’s a far smaller sum than it asked for in 2003, which kind of reflects SCO’s failure to produce convincing legal evidence.
2021. Xinuos sued IBM and Red Hat , claiming that IBM knowingly breached its non‑exclusive license by contributing Monterey code to Linux.
2022-2025. Xinuos argued that IBM’s actions amounted to licensing violations, but the U.S. District Court (SDNY) rejected this claim.
August 10, 2026. Xinuos’ appeals are rejected. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that the case was too old to relitigate, and Xinuos framed it as licensing but was really arguing ownership, which is time‑barred. Thus the District Court dismissal stood.
Now, August 2026. Xinuos has announced that it will petition for a full‑bench rehearing of its case. However, this is a long shot with a 0.03% chance of a rehearing being granted. According to IBM’s defense law firm.
While Xinuos looks like it has run out of road on its Linux code ownership claims, that’s probably good for the computing community. IBM, Red Hat, and the open-source world can probably now rest a little easier, with the shadow cast in 2003 now nearly entirely removed. Lingering uncertainty over Linux’s legitimacy is evaporating with the Second Circuit’s affirmation that the case is time-barred, and rather hollow, legally.
Other companies contributing code to open source projects can also rest a little easier as this distracting, resource-draining litigation grinds to a halt. Success for Xinuous may have also meant billions of Linux devices facing licensing uncertainty, maker settlements, audits, and/or forced software rewrites.
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Unix copyright code infringement lawsuit is back from the dead
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/decades-long-linux-ownership-dispute-effectively-dead-after-xinuos-appeal-rejected-us-court-of-appeals-halts-the-legal-wrangling-over-ibms-and-red-hats-use-of-project-monterey-unix-code#main
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