Patents bring Novell and Microsoft together

November 2, 2006 By

I remember hearing in the hallways back when I worked at Microsoft that Novell had some patents that were going to force Microsoft to pay attention at minimum and would force it to negotiate. I didn’t have much knowledge at the time, but it’s pretty interesting to see the announcement that’s going on right now — looks like the hallway chatter was correct. One IM’er just wrote me and said “feels like hell is freezing over.”

When a big news story like this hits, where do you go first? I go to Google News. There are already tons of stories there.

Dana Gardner is blogging it live.

More on TechMeme.

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  • CastleSoft

    Amazing.. Great news..

    Does this mean we can finally say Mono is LEGAL ?
    No more FUD about patent claims etc ???

  • CastleSoft

    Amazing.. Great news..

    Does this mean we can finally say Mono is LEGAL ?
    No more FUD about patent claims etc ???

  • Ross

    CastleSoft – it’s legal if you use it on Suse is all they are saying.

  • Ross

    CastleSoft – it’s legal if you use it on Suse is all they are saying.

  • Maayan Keshet

    I wonder if that means more Mono compatability with the newest of .Net.
    Seems like a very good deal for Novell, especially in the short-term where many companies interested in Linux will choose SUSE because of the patents’ coverage. So… kudos

  • Maayan Keshet

    I wonder if that means more Mono compatability with the newest of .Net.
    Seems like a very good deal for Novell, especially in the short-term where many companies interested in Linux will choose SUSE because of the patents’ coverage. So… kudos

  • Colby

    Sucks for Red Hat.

    Anti-MS zealots like those found on slashdot will now avoid Suse like the plague and choose other distros, but corporations are what matter, and corps are now much more likely to go with Suse over other distros.

  • Colby

    Sucks for Red Hat.

    Anti-MS zealots like those found on slashdot will now avoid Suse like the plague and choose other distros, but corporations are what matter, and corps are now much more likely to go with Suse over other distros.

  • CastleSoft

    I wonder if the patent protection on Mono also covers OpenSuSe ? (which is run/funded by Novell??)

    Bad luck for RedHat/Ubuntu/etc etc…

    Surely that makes SuSE very attractive to small business owners who wish to reduce costs..

  • CastleSoft

    I wonder if the patent protection on Mono also covers OpenSuSe ? (which is run/funded by Novell??)

    Bad luck for RedHat/Ubuntu/etc etc…

    Surely that makes SuSE very attractive to small business owners who wish to reduce costs..

  • CastleSoft

    Looks like OpenSuSE is FINE..??

    Quoting:
    http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6132119.html

    “Today, Novell is the only company in our industry that is able to provide the customer not only with the code to run Linux, but also with a patent covenant from Microsoft,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, said at the event.

    In addition, Microsoft promised not to assert patents against developers being paid to create code for OpenSuse, Smith said.

    Money is flowing both ways for the patent agreement, Smith said, including an “up-front balancing payment that runs from Microsoft to Novell, reflecting the large relevant volume of the products that we have shipped and an economic commitment from Novell to Microsoft that involves a running royalty.”

  • CastleSoft

    Looks like OpenSuSE is FINE..??

    Quoting:
    http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6132119.html

    “Today, Novell is the only company in our industry that is able to provide the customer not only with the code to run Linux, but also with a patent covenant from Microsoft,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, said at the event.

    In addition, Microsoft promised not to assert patents against developers being paid to create code for OpenSuse, Smith said.

    Money is flowing both ways for the patent agreement, Smith said, including an “up-front balancing payment that runs from Microsoft to Novell, reflecting the large relevant volume of the products that we have shipped and an economic commitment from Novell to Microsoft that involves a running royalty.”

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  • Brian

    Doesn’t Novell hold a lot of core patents on *nix?

    http://www.novell.com/news/press/archive/2003/05/pr03033.html

    Methinks this is a dagger pointed right at the heart of what MS has said many times is their #1 competitor: IBM.

    … Google? What’s that? Oh yeh, yesterday’s news.

  • Brian

    Doesn’t Novell hold a lot of core patents on *nix?

    http://www.novell.com/news/press/archive/2003/05/pr03033.html

    Methinks this is a dagger pointed right at the heart of what MS has said many times is their #1 competitor: IBM.

    … Google? What’s that? Oh yeh, yesterday’s news.

  • http://todd.dailey.info/ Todd Dailey

    Around our office here’s how the chat went:
    Oh sure, *first* Novell copies Expose from Apple, and *now* they copy partnering with Microsoft, which Apple did first in 1997!
    :)

  • http://todd.dailey.info Todd Dailey

    Around our office here’s how the chat went:
    Oh sure, *first* Novell copies Expose from Apple, and *now* they copy partnering with Microsoft, which Apple did first in 1997!
    :)

  • http://www.androhair.com/ Androhair

    Androhair: Microsoft is always having lawsuits and legal problem with any enterprise that tries to have a healthy competition..Im still waiting for a solution regarding the active x controls on IE, when will they let this applets work as they should and stop blocking them instead.
    http://www.androhair.com

  • http://www.androhair.com Androhair

    Androhair: Microsoft is always having lawsuits and legal problem with any enterprise that tries to have a healthy competition..Im still waiting for a solution regarding the active x controls on IE, when will they let this applets work as they should and stop blocking them instead.
    http://www.androhair.com

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  • lindalo

    While many have tried to divide the technology industry into separate worlds – open source or proprietary – the reality is more and more companies are using a mix of solutions and this will go along way towards meeting the needs of folks who use both solutions.

  • lindalo

    While many have tried to divide the technology industry into separate worlds – open source or proprietary – the reality is more and more companies are using a mix of solutions and this will go along way towards meeting the needs of folks who use both solutions.

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