SCO has one foot in the grave, but the sod hasn't been thrown over it yet.

With its copyright and slander-of-title case lost to Novell, it says it still means to bring its suspended contract and unfair competition case against IBM if the judge who presided over the Novell case - and who may have been as surprised as the Novell lawyers at the verdict - decides that Novell has no business blocking it.

Back eons ago Novell stepped into the SCO v IBM lawsuit - or at least tried to - and told SCO it couldn't sue IBM or lift IBM's license to distribute AIX, IBM's version of Unix.

Judge Stewart - he's the guy who ran the copyright trial - now gets to decide whether Novell's so-called waiver holds any water and how far it extends.

Briefs from both SCO and Novell are expected to land on his desk on April 19. He'll have a think and then decide. There probably won't be a hearing.

If it can cross that hurdle, SCO will still have to fight to get its Monterey charges against IBM recognized. Judge Kimball - the guy whose summary judgment awarded Novell the Unix copyrights in 2007 - barred them from the case when he wouldn't admit SCO's third amended complaint. SCO's got an aging right-to-amend motion floating around out there somewhere.

Then it's got to try to get its multibillion-dollar AIX/Dynix case, which was gutted by Magistrate Judge Brook Wells, patched back together again - it's got a reconsideration motion pending too - otherwise it'll have to go with the stump of a case.

Both sets of claims contend that IBM looted Unix for the sake of Linux and the AIX case includes a destruction of evidence charge that could prove highly entertaining and potentially profitable for SCO if it ever gets heard.

Anyway, Judge Kimball's summary judgment was of course overturned by the 10^th Circuit Court of Appeals last year, which is how Judge Stewart gets to make the decisions that could potentially put SCO, now older and poorer, kinda back where it was before the Novell distraction.

If the waiver ruling goes in SCO's favor, it's unclear who exactly would get to decide the right-to-amend and reconsideration motions, Judge Stewart or Judge Tina Campbell, who drew the IBM case when Kimball's summary judgment was overturned. It's possible Judge Stewart could take the IBM case because of his Novell learning curve.

Anyhow, even if Stewart does give SCO what it wants, SCO's bigger problem is simply surviving.

See, there's the little matter of the $3 million, $3.5 million that SCO owes Novell from the money that it collected from Sun Microsystems, a sum Novell will now doubtlessly press for along with Chapter 7 liquidation. That means the scene flips back to the bankruptcy court in Delaware. If bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross keeps SCO in what amounts to protective custody for the duration - and that's a mighty long time - then SCO might get to pursue its IBM quest - the lawyers are all paid up - but if he doesn't, then SCO could be road kill.

Of course, Novell doesn't have any dibs on SCO's business (yes, Virginia, there's still some business there) and remaining assets. The consortium of investors that just put $2 million in the company does. They would get paid first and if there's no money left in the till, then they get the assets including the IP and the right to chase SCO's claims.

Ah, but there's another course the lawyers could take right now - one that would drive the Linux hoards utterly nuts - and that's to ask Judge Stewart to scotch the jury verdict on the grounds that they got it wrong and award SCO the copyrights anyhow.

And there's another way of getting to the same place and that's by demanding what they call in legal circles specific performance. The jury was given four if-yes-go ahead-if-no-stop-right-there questions to answer. It never got past the first one: "Did the amended Asset Purchase Agreement between Novell and the Santa Cruz Operation transfer copyrights." The jury said no.

However, according to the testimony at the trial the copyrights were meant to transfer and - since the jury said they didn't - SCO's got a specific performance claim. It's already scheduled to ask Judge Stewart, also on April 19, that they transfer now to compensate for the oversight. That's another decision - besides the waiver business - that he reserved to himself alone in the run-up to the trial.

Whether Judge Stewart will in fact rule in SCO's favor is another thing. But with the copyrights in hand, SCO could do what it can't do now thanks to the jury verdict and that's demand a Linux tax from all the Linux installations out there and refill its coffers - or at least that's the theory.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Of course Novell would undoubtedly appeal. Or maybe owned and operated by Elliott Associates, the hedge fund that's trying to buy it, a less Linux-sensitive Novell offers SCO a few million gratefully accepted by SCO's trustee Judge Kahn to go away once and for all.

Since Novell acknowledged that it was for sale when it rejected Elliott's $2 billion bid as "inadequate," it's assumed to be dialing for dollars looking for other possible buyers and perhaps, if there's any interest, cutting NDAs. At least Elliott assumes it. And Elliott has expectations of looking at the books too and possibly refining its bid. The stock market apparently expects it. Novell's stock price is back over Elliott's $5.75-a-share offer - and it can't be just glee over SCO.