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Novell says Microsoft’s patent covenant extends to GPLv3
Matthew Aslett, October 12, 2007 @ 4:47 am ETGiven the fuss this week about Microsoft’s potential patent claims against Red Hat it is interesting to note that Novell updated its Technology Assurance Program yesterday to include its agreement with Microsoft.
It is particularly relevant given that, according to Novell’s NTAP information, Microsoft’s covenant not to sue Novell users will be extended to “all GPL v3 users as soon as GPL v3 code is integrated into SUSE Linux Enterprise.”
That statement runs contrary to the claims made by Microsoft in July this year, when the company insisted it was not a party to the GPLv3 and that its support certificates did not extend to GPLv3 code.
The NTAP information states the following:
“Under the Novell and Microsoft patent cooperation agreement, when you buy any Novell products — whether Linux-based or proprietary — you receive a patent covenant not to sue from Microsoft. Also under this agreement, customers have unprecedented choice and flexibility through improved interoperability and manageability between Windows and SUSE Linux Enterprise.
“Microsoft has extended its covenant to not sue users of Linux-based products from Novell to all GPL v3 users as soon as GPL v3 code is integrated into SUSE Linux Enterprise. This means that the patent protection Microsoft extends to Novell customers now covers every customer who uses any Linux-based software that Novell distributes under GPL v3.”
It would take a patent lawyer to decipher what impact this would have on Microsoft’s apparent claims against Red Hat, and I’m not one of those.
The statement appears to contradict Microsoft’s former position, however. It also appears to backup the Free Software Foundation’s claim that Microsoft “cannot declare itself exempt from the requirements of GPLv3.”
Comments (11) Categories: Licensing,Linux,Software
Anything that screws Microsoft is good. Does this?
GPLv3 bans exclusive patent agreements. Does this mean that if Novell distributes then the agreement extends to all other users, including RedHat et al.
That’s what the FSF says. Ultimately it will be for the patent lawyers to decide.
That is correct according to the way the Microsoft/Novell agreement is worded – Microsoft can’t comply with the Microsoft-Novell pact without extending the covenant not to sue to all GPL3 users as well without breaching GPL. If Microsoft does not want to extend it’s covenant in this way (which it clearly doesn’t), then it has to either breach GPL3 (for charging for patents on GPL3 code) or breach the Novell agreement.
Fron it’s announcements, Microsoft has clearly choosen to honour GPL3, which means that it has to breach the Microsoft/Novell agreement. It is doing this on the sly because the Microsoft/Novell pact is worthless anyway unless patents are named.
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Unfortunately Microsoft believes it’s found a solution to the GPL3 problem. Microsoft may not be able to sue GPL users directly for violating its patents, but that won’t stop it from funding a dozen patent trolls to sue Red Hat, etc.
The only way to bring some sanity back into the industry is to reform the U.S. patent system. Software – NOT patentable, Math – NOT patentable, Business methods – NOT patentable, Genes and other living organisms – NOT patentable. If someone skilled in the field can not build whatever is described in the patent, then it’s NOT patentable.
Those few changes would go a long way to correcting the excesses, not only in the software field, but in several others as well.
And that is now exactly the case.
Hi Matthew:
BBruce Lowry from Novell here. Welcome to the new gig at The 451 Group. Quick point of clarification. At no point did Microsoft or Novell say that the covenant not to sue from Microsoft to Novell customers would not apply to GPLv3 technologies. The covenant not to sue is broad based, across Novell technologies, regardless of license, regardless of whether proprietary or open source. So customers who deploy SUSE Linux Enterprise, even when it includes GPLv3 technologies, are still covered by the covenant not to sue. What Microsoft said concerning GPLv3 is that the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server certificates it was providing would not entitle customers to any code under GPLv3 in Novell offerings, including maintenance and support. Novell subsequently said that, notwithstanding that qualification from Microsoft, we would, in fact, support customers with the latest version of SUSE Linux Enterprise, even if that included GPLv3.
So the key point to keep in mind was Microsoft did not change the covenant not to sue. It simply changed what the certificates provided to customers. And Novell has said we’ll make those customers “whole” in any case. So the customers are not negatively impacted, either in terms of the version of the distribution or the patent protection they receive.
Make sense? Thanks.
- Bruce
Thanks for the clarification Bruce.
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptGiven the fuss this week about Microsoft’s potential patent claims against Red Hat it is interesting to note that Novell updated its Technology Assurance Program yesterday to include its agreement with Microsoft. … [...]
Hi there,
I found your blog post very interesting.i am Nick Robinson,a community member at Patents DOT Com(a comprehensive free patent
search engine).Will like to talk(through email) to you,is this the right time to talk about or should we talk during weekends ?
Regards,
Nick Robinson
E-nickrbson@gmail.com