In a move that will be seen by many as a sign of open - source counsellor ’ influence , a filing in Germany to create a pool led by Microsoft to buy Novell patents has been call in .
Early in December Microsoft , Apple , EMC and Oracle notified the German regulator that they planned to make CPTN Holdings with a view to buy 882 of Novell ’s patents . But the filing was withdrawn ( Rücknahme ) on Dec. 30 . No reason was given for the secession by German authorities , but it is likely voluntary as authorities would not yet have had metre to investigate the proposal .
CPTN belongings still intends to purchase the letters patent , however .
“ This is a purely adjective step necessary to provide time to allow for review of the proposed transaction , ” a Microsoft voice say in an einsteinium - mail financial statement . Microsoft declined extra commentary . Other member companies of CPTN did n’t immediately respond to requests for scuttlebutt .
CPTN may have remove the filing so as to make tweak that would avail it pass selective service with European regulators and ease critics ’ concerns .
In recent hebdomad , the German Federal Cartel Office has received letters and recommendations from various open - author arrangement let in the U.S.-based Open Source Initiative ( OSI ) and the Free Software Foundation Europe ( FSFE ) .
These capable - source advocates are extremely alarmed that patent with claims on some elements of candid - source software could fall into the hand of company that vie with that loose - source software package . Given Novell ’s past intimacy in innocent software growth , it seems very likely that at least some of the society ’s patents would cover loose computer software technologies .
“ The founders and leader of CPTN have a long chronicle of opposing and fudge the time value of undefended source software , which is at the heart of Web substructure and of many of the most wide used software products and services . The sole or leading contention for several products from the CPTN corpus are open source , ” said OSI in its varsity letter .
“ In many market ( such as operating systems , desktop productiveness , World Wide Web host ) , Free Software programs are the key competition to Microsoft ’s offerings . And Microsoft has used patent of invention cause to dampen competition from Free Software ( e.g. TomTom ) , and has long used uncorroborated patent claims for a continue campaign of fear , precariousness and doubt against Free Software , ” said Karsten Gerloff , FSFE president .
“ CPTN might also decide to sell the patents on to third parties . These could be so - called patent trolls or ‘ non - practicing entities . ’ In September 2009 , Microsoft sold 22 patent touch on to GNU / Linux during an auction sale where only non - practicing entity were ask for , ” Gerloff add up .
But CPTN ’s decision to withdraw the filing does n’t provide much reason to relax , agree to Gerloff .
“ The fight is not over . Perhaps we have a modest amount of breathing space , but the struggle is not over . ”
Novell is being bought by Attachmate , but the separate cut-rate sale of Novell ’s patent portfolio to CPTN for $ 450 million was already agreed .
