After the collapse of the German Democratic Republic in 1989, there were long court-proceedings for many years concerning the considerable net assets of the company "Novum". Although the company was an East German one, it was used to siphon money and finance the KPÖ, see also Rudolfine Steindling for further details. The company used to be able to make large amounts of money through GDR foreign trade and the protection of the East German Socialist Unity Party (SED), with the profits used almost exclusively to support the KPÖ. As the successor state, the Federal Republic of Germany laid claim to all the finances of Novum, which was hotly contested by the KPÖ. The German courts decided in 2002, that the former SED-company belonged to the state-assets of the GDR, hence to its successor state the unified Germany. Therefore, these net assets of the KPÖ were confiscated.