They used first Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection (SCO vs Novell was due to start on the Monday and the Bankruptcy began on the Friday) then Chapter 7 Liquidation to slow things down. There should have been perjury charges laid in my opinion due to when Novell wanted a bond set up for if SCOG lost they would get paid because they feared SCOG going into Bankruptcy first and SCOG told the Judge there was no danger of that.
In my opinion this was as much a paid for anti Linux scam as anything else.
Why for example couldn't the judge force public disclosure of the alleged infringing code? It (if it existed) was already in the public view the only thing that wasn't was the claim of ownership by SCOG. The only reason I could see for SCOG to object is that as long as it was in Linux they could fight to get copyright payments from Linux users. That wouldn't be a reason for the courts. Usually in a case like this a major factor is arranging the end of the infringement (if any) but that was always avoided.
The saddest part of this case is that the CEO of SCOG is now the CEO of another apparently healthy company. He failed up, at least until he starts more lawsuits.