Free Software Foundation Europe has written to the German competition authorities in order to share its concerns about the sale of Novell's patents to a consortium called CPTN, made up of Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and EMC.

Competition authorities in Germany and the United States today highlighted the fundamental role that Free Software plays for competition in the software market.

High Noon in Brussels: At the end of her term, competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes is wrapping up two open cases against Microsoft. The company offered to settle in July 2009. FSFE is concerned that a quick settlement could deprive Europeans of competition and innovation in a software market based on open standards, in particular where Free Software is concerned.

This month's headlines:
- Competition authorities: Free Software protects competition
- Mission is possible: take part into our Free PDFreaders campaign follow-up!
- Something completely different: LinuxTag, articles on Free Software on the Fellowship planet.
- Get Active - Internships at FSFE

Our petition aims to unify the voices of concerned Europeans, associations and companies, and calls on our politicians in Europe to stop patents on software with legislative clarifications. The patent system is misused to restrain competition for the economical benefit of a few but fails to promote innovation. A software market environment is better off with no patents on software at all.

Open Source Initiative (OSI) has asked a German competition law regulator to investigate the purchase of patents owned by Novell by CPTN, a consortium led by Microsoft and including Apple, Oracle and EMC.

Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) submitted its comments to the European Patent Office (EPO) on the patentability of software, responding to a request of the Enlarged Board of Appeal. In the brief, FSFE explains the harmful nature of software patents for innovation, competition and economy in general.

Nortel CIO Steve Bandrowczak, who joined the Canadian telecoms and network equipment vendor last July, said "more and more CIOs are looking at Linux desktop for reasons of TCO" and argued that the technology "is receiving the same level of attention today as when Linux started on servers."

Software patents have long been the source of a great deal of concern in the free software community; patents are by far the biggest restraint on our ability to program our own computers. Those who worry about these things have expected that attacks might come from patent trolls, or from software companies with fading prospects.