SCO is once again getting a hand slap in the courts, after a federal judge ordered them to fork over $2.5 million to Novell. The fine follows a decision made last year in which it was discovered that Novell, not SCO, actually owned the portions of Unix that SCO was suing them over. This is just more bad news on heaps of other bad news, not long after the company saw that they might go bankrupt.

Despite investments intended to help them recover, they have faced numerous setbacks and have found nothing but resistance in their attempt to draw money out of those they claimed were violating their patents. With this latest fine, the judge found that royalties SCO had collected from Sun weren't rightfully SCO's, and so the royalties must be handed over to Novell.