Re: SCO the "owner" of the UNIX operating system

Dear LWN
 
Regarding SCO's positioning on UNIX, The Open Group would like to make
it clear that SCO holds the rights only to the operating system source
code originally licensed by AT&T and does not own the UNIX trademark
itself or definition of what a UNIX system is.
 
Reference to the SCO web site show that they own certain
intellectual property and they correctly attribute the trademark.
SCO has never owned "UNIX".
 
In 1994 Novell (who had acquired the UNIX systems business of AT&T/USL)
decided to get out of that business. Rather than sell the business as a
single entity, Novell transferred the rights to the UNIX trademark and the
specification (that subsequently became the Single UNIX Specification)
to The Open Group (at the time X/Open Company). Simultaneously, it
sold the UNIX source code and the product implementation (UNIXWARE)
to SCO. The Open Group also owns the trademark UNIXWARE, transferred to
them from SCO more recently.
 
As the owner of the UNIX trademark, The Open Group has separated the
UNIX trademark from any actual code stream itself, thus allowing multiple
implementations. Since the introduction of the Single UNIX Specification,
there has been a single, open, consensus specification that defines the
requirements for a conformant UNIX system.
 
There is also a mark, or brand, that is used to identify those products
that have been certified as conforming to the Single UNIX Specification,
initially UNIX 93, followed subsequently by UNIX 95, UNIX 98 and now
UNIX 03. Both the specification and the UNIX trademark are managed and held
in trust for the industry by The Open Group. SCO, along with all other
vendors of UNIX systems (regardless of whether they are members of The
Open Group or not), distribute a UNIX system that has been certified
through the X/Open and The Open Group certification process.
 
The Open Group is committed to working with the community to further the
development of standards conformant systems by evolving and maintaining
the Single UNIX Specification and participation in the Linux Standard Base.
 
For further discussion on SCO's IP Claim please also see:
<http://mozillaquest.com/Linux03/ScoSource-02_Story01.html>
<http://mozillaquest.com/Linux03/ScoSource-02_Story04.html>
 
For the Austin Group see:
<http://www.opengroup.org/austin/>
 
For LSB certification and testing information see:
<http://www.opengroup.org/lsb/cert/>
<http://www.opengroup.org/testing/lsb-test/>
 
For the UNIX System Web site see:
<http://www.unix.org/>
 
-----
Andrew Josey
Director of Certification
The Open Group