<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> </head> <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff"> Open sourcers have asked German authorities to probe a Microsoft-backed purchase of hundreds of patents owned by Novell as part of that company's <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/22/attachmate_eats_novell/">purchase by Attachmate</a>. The Open Source Initiative (OSI) has written to the German Federal Cartel Office saying that the purchase of 882 patents for $450m by never-heard-of-before CPTN Holdings "represents a potentially new, and unprecedented threat against open source software." <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/03/osi_protests_cptn_germany/">http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/03/osi_protests_cptn_germany/</a> <pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">-- A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. Sir Winston Churchill </pre> </body> </html>