A federal judge ordered IBM to turn over programming code to lawyers for SCO Group, handing the small software company a legal victory in its multibillion dollar lawsuit against the computer giant.
The software code in question is at the center of the lawsuit, which SCO filed in 2003 accusing the computer giant of violating its trade secrets by introducing part of its Unix source code, or software blueprint, into Linux -- a freely available operating system.
Additionally, SCO is also trying to get users of Linux software to pay the company licensing fees under a program.
"SCO is pleased with the court's order and we look forward to obtaining this important discovery so we can continue with our preparation for trial," the Lindon, Utah-based company said in a statement.
Executives from SCO were not available for comment.
The lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial in the fall.
Officials from IBM were not immediately available for comment.
SCO had filed a motion saying that IBM had failed to provide information material to the case, which SCO believes will show that IBM had taken proprietary Unix code and introduced it into Linux.
Judge Brooke Wells granted SCO a partial review of IBM's programming code and said that SCO could be given complete access in the future if IBM withholds any further data.
SCO has been posting losses due to ongoing legal fees in its lawsuit against IBM and other companies.
