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DOJ Limits Microsoft's Purchase of Novell Patents

Posted by samzenpus on from the not-so-fast dept.

itwbennett writes "Novell, distributor of the SUSE Linux OS, has agreed to change its proposed deal to sell patents to CPTN Holdings, a Microsoft-organized consortium of companies, in order to satisfy DOJ concerns about the impact on open-source software, the DOJ said. The agreement will require Microsoft to sell the Novell patents back to Attachmate and Microsoft will receive a license to use those patents and patents acquired by the other three owners of CPTN."

1 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Open Invention Network by icebike · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They will. Read TFA.

    Microsoft is essentially getting a slurp of the licenses before the OIN or GPLv2 gets its hands on them. The get all the advantages of OIN membership without giving anything back.

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