Red Hat VP and Assistant General Counsel, wrote about Red Hat’s patent policy in response to some stories in the “press” spreading FUD about some AMQP-related patents, and (non sequitur alert) the recent virtualization agreement with Microsoft.

Novell's long tradition of software patenting lives on, but what about Red Hat?

I wanted to highlight this press release, instead of just putting it in News Picks, to make sure you see it and understand the significance of it. It's a press release from Open Invention Network, the Linux Defenders 911 folks, and they announced today that TomTom is now a licensee.

Patent pools to the rescue? - What a patent blanket/inventory may mean to TomTom's two-way battle with Microsoft

Although many users simply click “Save” and give no thought to which format is being used under the covers, this unthinking use of the word processor's default settings is a recipe for vendor lock-in. In fact, several vendors intentionally set their default format to be ones which will only work well with their own software...

Steven Martin, Microsoft's senior director of developer platform management, discusses Microsoft's call for an open process to define cloud computing going forward. Essentially, Martin expressed concern about a so-called "Cloud Manifesto" and Microsoft's view that it is biased to benefit its authors.

As the lobby for software patents in Europe intensifies, we identify and dissect the culprits. EUROPE is under attack at the moment. Lobbyists of firms like Microsoft - and in particular ACT - are trying to legalise software patents, thus marginalise Free software, and the Commission is not particularly helpful; it's almost playing along with the lobby, or playing right into its hands.

I can't believe there's yet more major news, all in one day. But there is, from the bankruptcy front. SCO's period of exclusivity is over, as you can see from the minutes of today's hearing [PDF].