A fortnight after forging a historic agreement to
collaborate over open source and proprietary software, Microsoft
and Novell have found themselves at odds between both themselves
and the open source community over the issue of software
patents.
The spat has echoes of the long running battle between IBM and
SCO, where SCO sued IBM for $1bn, as well as sending letters to a
number of global enterprises, alleging Unix code patent
infringements.
However, this time Microsoft and Novell have said they will not
sue any users.
In an open letter to the open source community, Novell chief
executive officer Ron Hovsepian found himself defending the
supplier’s decision to partner with Microsoft.
Hovsepian said that interoperability between Windows and Novell
SuSE Linux would benefit users, and Novell and Microsoft have
promised not to sue the other's customers for patent
infringement.
He added, “Since our announcement, some parties have spoken
about this patent agreement in a damaging way, and with a
perspective that we do not share. We disagree with the recent
statements made by Microsoft on the topic of Linux and patents.
Importantly, our agreement with Microsoft is in no way an
acknowledgment that Linux infringes upon any Microsoft intellectual
property.”
Hovsepian said, “We wish to be extremely clear that Novell is
committed to protecting, preserving and promoting freedom for free
and open source software. We recognise that the community of open
source developers is essential to all our activities in Linux, and
we welcome dialogue with the community as to how we can continue to
work together toward these common goals.”
Microsoft issued its own public statement, saying, “Microsoft
and Novell have agreed to disagree on whether certain open source
offerings infringe Microsoft patents and whether certain Microsoft
offerings infringe Novell patents. The agreement between our two
companies puts in place a workable solution for customers for these
issues, without requiring an agreement between our two companies on
infringement.”
However, Microsoft reiterated that it believed it was necessary
to “create a patent covenant for customers” to protect them from
litigation.
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