Novell to Defend Open Source Using Patents

bbsguru writes "As another step in its transition to an Open Source developer, Novell has thrown the considerable weight of its patent portfolio in support of the movement. A letter from Novell North American President Ron Hovesepian to all of their channel partners today said, 'This initiative is aimed at any vendor that tries to mislead customers using intellectual property rights.'"

Novell SuSE Linux

[richie2000]

I recently applied for a Linux eval kit and got a 3-DVD set from Novell with SuSE Linux, both Pro and Enterprise, Groupwise and a lot of other goodies like their Netware implementation for Linux. The program is currently closed, but if they ever re-open it - go for it. The packaging was excellent, SuSE worked fine out-of-the-box and delivery was prompt. They even followed-up with a non-intrusive e-mail a month later asking how it went and pointing me to more resources.

Novell's running a class act here and they deserve our support so if you're in a position to select a distro for your company, take another look at Novell's offerings. If you download an Enterprise eval version 9 [novell.com], you get 30 days free installation support for it. You can't beat that.

Re:Double Standard

[metlin]

No, the way they worded it, it sounded more defensive than otherwise.

I understand what you mean and the unfortunate hypocrisy, but it did not sound like that - it sounded as though they were trying to protect themselves from sue-happy companies.

Consider this -

Consistent with this belief, Novell will use its patent portfolio to protect itself against claims made against the Linux kernel or open source programs included in Novell's offerings, as dictated by the actions of others.

That sounds more like, if you make claims that are offending our business, we would not take it lightly. It definitely does not sound like they would have a sue-first think-later kinda attitude.

As appropriate, Novell is prepared to use our patents, which are highly relevant in today's marketplace, to defend against those who might assert patents against open source products marketed, sold or supported by Novell.

If you sue us with your patents, we'll have to handle you accordingly.

Come on, that sounds quite benign. Looks to me like they're just trying to protect their interests.

They Still Own UNIX Patents and probably more

[HighOrbit]

IIRC, Novell retained ownership of the Unix Patents (if they aren't all already expired) when they transfered the buisness to old SCO. Since Linux is mostly implenting stuff that UNIX has already done, Novell should be safe. Basically, any functionallity that Linux implements has probably already been implemented in UNIX. therefore one of two things come into play 1) Novell already owns it, or 2)The person who asserts it would have to show why they didn't assert it for UNIX also at sometime over the last 30 years of UNIX's existance.

Another thing to remember is that Novell was the big deal in networking and networked apps back in the late 80's-early 90's, so they probably hold a lot of IP from their old netware days.

GPL Prevents That

[Anonymous Coward]

Under the GPL, you CANNOT distribute a work if you cannot give people the rights to *redistribute* it.

So, any license they negotiated would allow everyone, not just Novell, to use the GPL'd work in question.

Now then, it's true--other licenses like the BSD license do *not* have this requirement, so we could get stuck with something becoming "Novell-only" (though even then, other entities could license the patent or use it in venues where the patent isn't recognized). But that's one of the reasons the GPL coerces you to make the software itself free for *all* and not just for yourself :)

Re:seems like Novell has a threatening tone...

[mdfst13]

"what if someone did have a legitimate claim?"

That would require that software patents be legitimate. Further, as others have pointed out, this *is* a legitimate use of patents currently. Note that IBM is using patents exactly this way against SCO.

Re:Good News, But....

[swillden]

Seeing is believing here. On a patent attack Novell will be tempted to cross license the issue, but for Novell customers only, not for Open Source users and distributers in general.

IANAL, but I don't think they would do this.

Why? Section 7 of the GPL states:

If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the Program at all.

For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.

So to satisfy the terms of the GPL, they would have to arrange the patent cross-licensing agreement so that anyone who receives a copy from Novell can redistribute under the terms of the same license agreement.

This means that everyone would have to get a copy from Novell, or from someone who got a copy from Novell, or... to whatever lever of indirection you want. After everyone did this, then everyone would have a license so the net effect would be identical to just cross-licensing for users of F/LOSS anyway. Except that everyone would be pissed off at Novell for making them jump through the irritating hoops.

Novell would have to be pretty stupid to do that, IMO.

Patents != copyright

[LordK2002]

Novell's statement relates to patents. The GPL is founded on copyright.

The fact that they might both be referred to as "intellectual property" does not change the fact that they are two completely different ball games.

Re:Hmm...

[Minna Kirai]

but from what I remember, in THEORY you cannot copyright something unless you provide the text.

No. You don't have to provide anything to anybody to copyright something. For example, this post will be copyrighted to me even before I click "Submit". The followup about "50 pages" is totally wrong too. There is no requirement to submit your work to any agency to have it copyrighted.

40 years ago, there was... ancient history though.