Summary: Novell's software patents pursuit continues unabated, based on new reports from Utah

Novell has just been granted 3 more software patents, continuing a tradition that only harms -- not helps -- GNU/Linux. The patents are as follows:

System and method of searching for providing clue-based context searching, patent No. 7,707,146, invented by Nathaniel Dourif Friedman, of Boston, Mass., assigned to Novell Inc. of Provo.

System and method of searching for classifying user activity performed on a computer system, patent No. 7,707,284, invented by Nathaniel Dourif Friedman, of Boston, Mass., and Jon Eric Trowbridge, of Chicago, Ill., assigned to Novell Inc. of Provo.

Authentication cache and authentication on demand in a distributed network environment, patent No. 7,707,416, invented by Scott Alan Isaacson, of Woodland Hills; Daniel Gene Fritch, of Maple Valley, Wash.; Larry Hal Henderson, of Orem; Lynn Wells Crabb, of Lindon; and James Duane Nyland Jr., of Pleasant Grove, assigned to Novell Inc. of Provo.

Nat Friedman recently left, but Novell had pulled some more software patents with him. Having worked at Microsoft for a while, Friedman was a Microsoft apologist/proponent inside Novell.

The thing about such software patents is that Novell brags about them. Any claims that Novell helps GNU/Linux should be taken with a grain of salt because more than anything Novell is helping Microsoft and later today we will provide new examples. ⬆