Re: [opensuse-project] Update on the Microsoft deal - Letter to the Community by Novell
Reply on 21-11-2006 13:43:41 <<<
On Tuesday 21 November 2006 12:29, Kevin Donnelly wrote:
On Tuesday 21 November 2006 09:52, Andreas Jaeger wrote:
There's now an letter from our CEO Ron Hovsepian, I quote it in full below,
This is a very useful development. Paragraphs 3:
Our interest in signing this agreement ...
and 5:
We disagree with the recent statements made by Microsoft
are particularly helpful.
What is this? Doesn't smell right.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/nov06/11-20Statement.mspx
"We at Microsoft respect Novell's point of view on the patent
even while we respectfully take a different view. Novell is absolutely right in stating that it did not admit or acknowledge any patent problems as
issue, part
of entering into the patent collaboration agreement. At Microsoft we undertook our own analysis of our patent portfolio and concluded that it was necessary and important to create a patent covenant for customers of these products. We are gratified that such a solution is now in place."
I would say that Microsoft checked their software and found out that they were infringing Novell Patents. For this reason they pushed to this agreement and are now happy they have their customers save. Dominique --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org
On Tuesday 21 November 2006 13:44, Dominique Leuenberger wrote:
I would say that Microsoft checked their software and found out that they were infringing Novell Patents. For this reason they pushed to this agreement and are now happy they have their customers save.
Then shouldn't it have to read "At Microsoft we undertook our own analysis of __Novell's__ patent portfolio and concluded that it was necessary and important to create a patent covenant for customers of these products. We are gratified that such a solution is now in place." ? --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org
Silviu Marin-Caea <silviu_marin-caea@fieldinsights.ro> writes:
On Tuesday 21 November 2006 13:44, Dominique Leuenberger wrote:
I would say that Microsoft checked their software and found out that they were infringing Novell Patents. For this reason they pushed to this agreement and are now happy they have their customers save.
Then shouldn't it have to read "At Microsoft we undertook our own analysis of __Novell's__ patent portfolio and concluded that it was necessary and important to create a patent covenant for customers of these products. We are gratified that such a solution is now in place."
It goes both directions: "Microsoft and Novell have agreed to disagree on whether certain open source offerings infringe Microsoft patents and whether certain Microsoft offerings infringe Novell patents." So, this sounds to me as if there is saying "MS infringe" and Microsoft saying "Linux infringes" - and the other side disagrees... Andreas -- Andreas Jaeger, aj@suse.de, http://www.suse.de/~aj/ SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstr. 5, 90409 Nürnberg, Germany GPG fingerprint = 93A3 365E CE47 B889 DF7F FED1 389A 563C C272 A126
On 11/21/06, Andreas Jaeger <aj@suse.de> wrote:
Silviu Marin-Caea <silviu_marin-caea@fieldinsights.ro> writes:
On Tuesday 21 November 2006 13:44, Dominique Leuenberger wrote:
I would say that Microsoft checked their software and found out that they were infringing Novell Patents. For this reason they pushed to this agreement and are now happy they have their customers save.
Then shouldn't it have to read "At Microsoft we undertook our own analysis of __Novell's__ patent portfolio and concluded that it was necessary and important to create a patent covenant for customers of these products. We are gratified that such a solution is now in place."
It goes both directions: "Microsoft and Novell have agreed to disagree on whether certain open source offerings infringe Microsoft patents and whether certain Microsoft offerings infringe Novell patents."
So, this sounds to me as if there is saying "MS infringe" and Microsoft saying "Linux infringes" - and the other side disagrees...
If you murder somebody, you are (in most places) innocent until you are convicted of such a crime. Patent infringing is the same. There are a lot of patents that are very broad, but until determined by a court (or agreement) there is no infringement. Any talk about infringements is no different to talking about whether you 'think' somebody is innocent or not before a trial. It is just a belief, and in this regard Novell is no different to Microsoft. Of course Novell doesn't acknowledge patent infringement, doing so, basically makes it true, like an accused man confessing to a crime. The way I see this agreement is that the Patents held by each company will not be tested against the other's products. Just as an example: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=104&p=3&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&S1=microsoft&OS=microsoft&RS=microsoft is a patent for establishing a voip call from clicking a URL in a browser eg callto:555555 or SIP:somebody@sip.org and that being handled by an application. If there is similar functionality in SUSE using VOIP software, it does not mean that it is an infringement. In court this patent may very well be deemed invalid due to prior art, or it may be shown that what is claimed is not novel enough to be covered by a patent. What I have written before is that I don't think the agreement is such a big deal, it is the act of getting into bed with the masters of FUD that is going to hurt. Pflodo Peter Flodin --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org
participants (4)
-
Andreas Jaeger -
Dominique Leuenberger -
Peter Flodin -
Silviu Marin-Caea