Eleventh Circuit affirms lower court decision in favor of X/Open

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a lower court judgment in favor of firm client X/Open Company Limited, a non-profit computer-industry consortium responsible for setting and managing the specifications for UNIX-based products. The decision caps a decade-long dispute which began as an administrative proceeding at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and later escalated into a federal court lawsuit when the plaintiff Wayne Gray alleged violations of federal and state RICO statutes, the Florida Communications Fraud Act, and the Lanham Act. The crux of plaintiff’s claim was that X/Open fraudulently asserted ownership in the UNIX mark against Gray in the earlier administrative action and then “conspired” with co-defendants Novell, Inc. and The SCO Group, Inc. to conceal the true ownership of that mark. The lower court had granted summary judgment in favor of X/Open, finding that various prior agreements and dealings between X/Open and the co-defendants indisputably established that X/Open owned the UNIX mark. The appeals court panel unequivocally affirmed, holding that Gray was simply “mistaken” about the legal effect of each agreement at issue. Because X/Open owned the UNIX mark and had lawfully asserted its rights in that mark against Gray, the Court held that all of Gray’s claims must fail.