of Unix, and that other Unix-type operating systems—particularly the free operating system Linux and other variants of Unix sold by competitor companies—were violating their intellectual property by using Unix code without a license in their works. SCO initially claimed, and tried to assert, a legal means to litigate directly against all end-users of these operating systems, as well as the companies or groups providing them—potentially a very substantial case and one that would throw fear into the market about using them. However, it was unable to formulate such a case, since the Unix copyrights were weakly worded, there was no basis in patent law, and breach of trade secrets would only affect the one or few companies who might have been alleged to have disclosed trade secrets. Lacking grounds to sue all users generally, SCO dropped this aspect of its cases. The assertions were heavily contested. Claims of SCO's own copyright violations of these other systems were raised, along with claims related to SCO being bound by, or violating, the GPL licence, under which SCO conducted business related to these systems. Claims were also made that the case was substantially financed and promoted by Microsoft and investment businesses with links to Microsoft; around that time (1998–2004 onwards), Microsoft was fiercely engaged in various FUD tactics such as its Get the facts campaign, that sought to undermine or discredit Linux as a possible competitor to its own Windows operating systems and server systems. In the end, SCO launched only a few main legal cases—against IBM for improper disclosure and breach of copyright related to its AIX operating system, against Novell for interference (clouding the issue of ownership), against DaimlerChrysler for non-compliance with a demand to certify certain matters related to Unix usage, and against Linux business and former client AutoZone for violating SCO's rights by using Linux. Separately, the Linux company Red Hat also filed a legal claim against SCO for making false claims that affected its (Red Hat's) business, and to seek a court declaration that SCO had no ownership rights in Linux code. In 2007, a court ruled in SCO v. Novell that Novell and not SCO was the owner of the Unix copyrights. , most of these cases have been resolved, or largely resolved, and none of the rulings have been in SCO's favor. Timeline and major cases At the beginning of 2003, SCO claimed that there had