Competition authorities are investigating the sale of 6000 patents from Nortel, a bankrupt telecommunications equipment manufacturer, to a consortium of Apple, Microsoft and four other companies. FSFE considers it a serious risk to competition in the mobile technology space, and Free Software as a whole, if those companies acquire these patents.

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.

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

Faced with a potentially large threat to free/libre and open source software from patent consortium CPTN, the two organisations have collaborated publicly for the first time. Before Christmas Open Source Initiative (OSI) wrote to the German Federal Cartel Office asking them to investigate the acquisition of Novell assets by the CPTN Group as a possibly anti-competitive move by CPTN's four members.

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.

Free Software Foundation Europe congratulates the European Commission on pushing Microsoft to give users greater choice between different browsers. "The selection screen will make users aware that they can make their own choices," says Karsten Gerloff, FSFE's President. "We are glad that FSFE has helped the Commission to put limits to Microsoft's desktop monopoly."

During its General Assembly in Miraflores de la Sierra, Spain, the members of FSFE elected new coordinators for several of the organisation's activities, including strategy, legal and executive coordination.

Further analysis of what Novell's likely sale means when it comes to its patents and what it is currently doing to MeeGo, to which it added a Mono stack

The Open Source Initiative and the Free Software Foundations - two organisations fighting for the same cause, but traditionally in very different ways - have joined forces in an attempt to prevent Novell patents falling into Microsoft's hands.