| Microsoft clarifies Novell "patent collaboration agreement" |
Nov. 21, 2006
In an unusually fast turn-around, Microsoft replied within hours to Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian's "Open Letter to the Community from Novell." In a statement, Microsoft acknowledges that Novell never agreed, as some critics of the deal have claimed, to Microsoft's vague contentions of patent violations in Linux.
In his open letter to the community, Hovsepian wrote, "Microsoft asked that we cooperate on patents as well, and so a patent cooperation agreement was included as a part of the deal. In this agreement, Novell and Microsoft each promise not to sue the other's customers for patent infringement. The intended effect of this agreement was to give our joint customers peace of mind that they have the full support of the other company for their IT activities."
In an eWEEK interview, John Dragoon, Novell's senior VP and CMO, further explained, "Some customers, for whatever reasons, decided they did not want the hassles of addressing intellectual property issues. Our doing this agreement with Microsoft is not an admission that we believe Linux is impugned in any way, but it is an admission that we wanted to remove whatever impediments there are to the adoption of Linux and open source and do that on behalf of our customers."
Hovsepian also wrote, "Our agreement with Microsoft is in no way an acknowledgment that Linux infringes upon any Microsoft intellectual property. To claim otherwise is to further sow fear, uncertainty and doubt, and does not offer a fair basis for competition."
According to a Microsoft representative, "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."
In short, Microsoft is admitting that Novell never agreed, as some critics of the deal have claimed, to Microsoft's vague contentions of patent violations in Linux. The Microsoft spokesperson goes on to make this crystal clear.
"We at Microsoft respect Novell's point of view on the patent issue, even while we respectfully take a different view. Novell is absolutely right in stating that it did not admit or acknowledge any patent problems as part of entering into the patent collaboration agreement. At Microsoft we undertook our own analysis of our patent portfolio and concluded that it was necessary and important to create a patent covenant for customers of these products. We are gratified that such a solution is now in place."
The Microsoft response also contained further acknowledgment that Microsoft has been forced to recognize that Linux is here to stay and that its programs must work with it, rather than simply dismiss it.
"Both of our companies are fully committed to moving forward with all of the important work under these agreements. The agreements will advance interoperability between Windows and Linux and put in place a new intellectual property bridge between proprietary and open source software. Customers and participants throughout our industry will clearly benefit from these results."
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Special Report: Novell and Microsoft Collaborate on Linux
For lots of background on the Novell/Microsoft Linux deal, visit Linux-Watch.com's reading list, here.
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