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Novell sold to Attachmate

Posted Nov 22, 2010 16:54 UTC (Mon) by coriordan (guest, #7544)
In reply to: Novell sold to Attachmate by lxoliva
Parent article: Novell sold to Attachmate

I think the two important questions now are:

* What important patents did Novell have?
* What happens to the pledges Novell made to OIN? (Were they promises, licences, or transfers? A mix, IIRC)

(Log in to post comments)

Posted Nov 23, 2010 0:03 UTC (Tue) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]

I expect that contracts and agreements with OIN still stand and will continue to stand for as long as those agreements were originally set to last.

It's not like when you buy a company then all of a sudden you eliminated all the original company's obligations. The good and the bad are part of what you buy.

To know for certain you'll have to look at the OIN contracts and see if there is any escape clause or whatever for pulling your patents back out. Like if Novell could buy themselves out of the OIN then it would be possible for the new patent holders to do that also.

Novell sold to Attachmate

Posted Nov 23, 2010 2:33 UTC (Tue) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330) [Link]

Actually, I think that Microsoft may well have paid more monetary damages to patent trolls than any other software company. While they may gain from patent FUD (as in "don't implement that or maybe we might be able to sue you"), if actual patent wars break out their pockets are deep and they have a lot to lose.

What patents does Novell own

Posted Nov 23, 2010 20:43 UTC (Tue) by kmself (subscriber, #11565) [Link]

In patents, quantity can matter more than quality.

A large quantity becomes (depending on which tack you wish to take), leverage in pressing for licensing fees from others (a trick IBM knows well), or a bargaining chip in dealing with requests for licensing fees from others. In either case, the alternative is litigation, generally aimed at busting the patent. Patent busting is expensive and time consuming. Multiply that by 882 patents (a pretty significant holding).

Of course, specific patents may be instrumental in carving out market space, it'll be interesting to see what's in there and how they can/will be used.

I don't particularly welcome this development.