A court in Utah has ruled that SCO will have to pay over $2.5m (£1.62m) in damages to Novell, and has reasserted Novell's ownership of Unix.

US District Judge Dale A Kimball said that judgements in August 2007 and July 2008 are sound, and that SCO is liable for $2,547,817, plus interest thought to exceed $900,000 (£583,947) after it amended Sun Microsystems' licence for the Unix SVRx.

The judge did, however, leave the way open for SCO to appeal against certain aspects of the case.

The company has reportedly said that it will continue to fight but, as it is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and has yet to file a refinancing plan that must be registered by 31 December, funding such action may be problematic.

If SCO does raise itself out of Chapter 11 the company is not out of trouble, since this would reactivate further legal cases against IBM and Red Hat, plus additional cases still pending in Europe.