Novell patents' new owners include Apple, EMC, and Oracle -- not just Microsoft

[Basil Chupin]

Apple, Oracle, and EMC are involved with CPTN Holdings, the 
Microsoft-led consortium that is purchasing 882 patents from Novell for 
$450 million, according to a Dec. 9 posting on the website of German 
antitrust authority Bundeskartellamt 
<http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.bundeskartellamt.de/wDeutsch/zusammenschluesse/zusammenschluesse.php> 
(the Federal Cartel Office).

Little remains known about which patents CPTN Holdings will acquire, 
although speculation has run rampant in recent weeks 
<http://blogs.computerworld.com/17424/who_owns_what_in_the_novell_deal>. 
Many had also wondered which other companies were involved in the LLC, 
and the nature of their interest in the patents.

An Oracle spokeswoman declined comment. Apple and EMC did not 
immediately respond to a request for comment.

There seems little cause for immediate alarm, according to open-source 
advocate Florian Mueller, who flagged the Bundeskartellamt notice on his 
blog Thursday.


http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/novell-patents-new-owners-include-apple-emc-and-oracle-not-just-microsoft-566


-- 
"Everybody wants to go to Heaven but nobody wants to die."

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