Novell to defend open-source software with patents

IDG News Service - Novell Inc. is prepared to use its portfolio of software patents to protect its open-source software products against lawsuits, the company said in a statement posted on its Web site and in an e-mail sent to customers yesterday.
Novell intended to reassure buyers of the company's open-source software, including the SUSE Linux operating system and Ximian desktop software, that the products are as safe from legal attacks as proprietary software. The company's statements say Novell would use the "same measures generally used to defend proprietary software products," in the event that any open-source projects included in Novell's products are involved in patent infringement lawsuits.
"If somebody comes after an open-source technology that we ship with a patent claim, then we're going to go after that company," said Bruce Lowry, a Novell spokesman.
Though software patent disputes are fairly common in the high-tech industry, open-source software's vulnerability to a patent suit has received particular attention recently, spurred in part by The SCO Group Inc.'s claims that the Linux kernel violates its intellectual property.
Because open-source code tends to be created by diverse groups of developers who write code that can be easily scrutinized, some critics have said that it may be easier for companies to make IP claims against it.
An August study funded by insurance provider Open Source Risk Management LLC found that 283 registered software patents, including 27 held by Microsoft Corp., could conceivably be used as the basis of lawsuits against the Linux kernel (see story).
Recently, the city of Munich halted a 14,000-PC Linux rollout to investigate the patent liabilities associated with such a large deployment of open-source software. The city eventually decided to go ahead with Linux after concluding that the risk of software patent infringement was "very small," said Stefan Hauf, a city spokesman (see story).
Novell's statement of a patent policy follows similar declarations from open-source providers including IBM and Red Hat Inc.
In August, IBM senior vice president of technology and marketing Nick Donofrio said his company would not use its patents against the Linux kernel. Red Hat has recently begun amassing a patent portfolio, to be used only for "defensive purposes," the company said.
Novell is in a unique position to defend open-source software, Lowry said, because it has 411 patents in its portfolio, far more than other open-source providers.
Linux advocate Bruce Perens, who has long warned of the patent threat to open-source software, welcomed Novell's new patent policy but said a patent defense might have no effect against a company