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"When Microsoft announced the first of its patent interoperability agreements with Novell in November 2006, one of the major claims made in favor of the patent covenant agreement was that it would give customers peace of mind and ensure that they didn’t have to worry about issues such as intellectual property infringement."
There is no substantial news here other than development of discussions, which seem to spread fairly fast from one blog to another blog and soon onto the press. To repeat criticisms from yesterday about Novell’s announcement on China [1, 2], Novell and Microsoft keep spreading software patents to all parts of the world (never mind the legality), using SUSE Linux (Ballnux).
Linux vendor Red Hat sure doesn't seem to like Microsoft much. Red Hat is now alleging that Microsoft is not committed to the path of peace with open source software vendors.
Various fronts, some of which associated/funded by Microsoft, are pushing for software patents in Europe using at least two back doors (harmonisation; Community Patent).
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.
