What patents does Novell own [LWN.net]

What patents does Novell own

Posted Nov 23, 2010 20:43 UTC (Tue) by kmself (subscriber, #11565)
In reply to: Novell sold to Attachmate by coriordan
Parent article: Novell sold to Attachmate

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.

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