SCO names intellectual property exec

SCO Group has added a new executive to its SCOsource unit in Europe, naming Gregory Blepp as vice president of its intellectual property rights protection division. Blepp, who formerly worked as a vice president of international business at European Linux software distributor SuSE, joins Linden, Utah-based SCO at the height of the company's battle to defend intellectual property rights related to the Unix operating system. Blepp also worked previously for several other software vendors, including Network Associates and Computer Associates.

SCO has become the center of a large-scale controversy after suing IBM for unauthorized use of the Unix source code, for which it owns intellectual property rights, in Linux-based software. SCO announced the appointment of Blepp to the SCOsource unit during its partner and customer conference in Las Vegas this week, where the company also highlighted the source code it claims IBM and others have misused.