DOJ limits Microsoft's purchase of Novell patents

The agreement from both Novell and CPTN to modify the deal will not end a DOJ investigation into the sale, the DOJ said in a press release. However the changes will allow the first phase of the US$450 million deal to proceed, the DOJ said. CPTN, owned by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and EMC, filed paperwork in November announcing its plan to buy 882 Novell patents.

In addition, all of the Novell patents will be subject to the GNU General Public License, Version 2 and the Open Invention Network License, a significant license in Linux, the DOJ said. CPTN will not have the right to limit which of the patents are available in accordance with the OIN license, and CPTN and its owners will be prohibited from encouraging Novell or Attachmate to modify which patents are available pursuant to this agreement the OIN license, the DOJ said.

Grant Gross covers innovation and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant's e-mail address is grant_gross@idg.com.

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