Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell Keeps Amassing More Software Patents, Feeding a Rogue System

Shopping for monopolies

Shopping



Summary: Novell has just received yet more software patents and the situation inside the USPTO keeps getting worse as scope of monopolies expands

The CPTN transaction is a case of Novell passing patent monopolies to Microsoft. CPTN remains a barrier even if Novell chooses to pretend this barrier does not exist and for more background on the subject see:



According to this new roundup from Utah, Novell carries on filing patent applications and receiving some (even while the company sells them to some shell). Here are three of the latest:

Method and apparatus for controlling access to portal content from outside, Patent No. 7,890,639, invented by Shawn Matthew Holmstead, of Lehi; Olin Sayre Atkinson, of Orem; Dale Allen Lowry, of Springville; and Christopher Jean Seiler, of Pleasant Grove; assigned to Novell Inc., of Provo.

[...]

Receiver nonrepudiation, Patent No. 7,890,757, invented by Gosukonda Naga Venkata Satva Sudhakar, of Bangalore, India; assigned to Novell Inc., of Provo.

Heterogeneous normalization of data characteristics, Patent No. 7,890,938, invented by Nathan Blaine Jensen, of Spanish Fork; Stephen R. Carter, of Spanish Fork; William Street, of Orem; Michel Shane Simpson, of American Fork; William D. Peterson, of Provo; and Scott Alan Isaacson, of Woodland Hills; assigned to Novell Inc., of Provo.


Will any of these be sold to an entity that is hostile towards Linux, such as the Microsoft-led CPTN? Will AttachMSFT decide to sell them at a later date? And if so, to whom? Their neighbours from Microsoft? Novell ought to know the trouble which is caused by patent trolls; after all, according to this report, Novell is still among the victims:

Lodsys is a Texas limited liability company with its principal place of business in Marshall.

The defendants are Brother International Corp., Canon U.S.A. Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Hulu, Lenovo (United States) Inc., Lexmark International Inc., Motorola Mobility Inc., Novell Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Samsung Electronics America Inc., Samsung Telecommunications America and Trend Micro Inc.



According to this other new report, nanotechnology patents also spread:

According to the report, as of March 2010, 6,000 patents for nanotechnologies had been awarded by the United States Patent and Trademark Office alone. The US government was the “largest patent patron for 2008,” with research and development funded by the Department of Energy, Air Force, National Institutes of Health, Army, Department of Defense, Food and Drug Administration, and National Cancer Institute.


Patents on nanotechnologies may make some people rich, but they will not promote innovation. Quite conversely, patents will impede future work on nanotechnology because barriers are never intended to somehow create even more incentives to innovate. "David Plouffe Gives Preliminary Response Concerning Obstacles To Innovation" says this new post:

The problem is that his suggestions for patent reform do not fix the system, and in some cases make it much worse. In fact, I pointed to numerous studies and research in my response that explained this.


The patent system is harming one field at the time. Patent lawyers allow this to happen and even lobby for it because this is profitable and the same applies to large companies that have a lot of monopolies. What Novell is doing is selfish and detrimental to innovation.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Professor Eben Moglen on How Social Control Media Metabolises Humans and Constrains Freedom of Thought
Nothing of value would be lost if all these data-harvesting giants (profiling people) vanished overnight
Debian Left Twitter (MElon "X"), We Think the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Should Do the Same
What would the FSF really lose if it stopped posting there?
Tons of Anti-Linux 'Articles' Published by Bots (LLMs), Maybe Microsoft's
Upon closer inspection, all this FUD turned out to be LLM garbage
Ubuntu Desktop Director of Engineering Has Only One Blog Post. It Promotes Microsoft Windows.
Remember that even 15 years ago (more or less, maybe 16 years ago) Canonical appointed a a 'former' Microsoft manager (Spencer) to lead Ubuntu on the desktop
 
Gemini Links 07/02/2025: Mid-level Details and Simple Code
Links for the day
Links 07/02/2025: US 'Demolition Crew', e-ID Loopholes, and Sanctions
Links for the day
Social Control Media is Narcissism
Nowadays there's a lot more literature and even press coverage explaining the harms of Social Control Media
statCounter Sees GNU/Linux Share Doubling in China Over the Past Year
It'll be interesting to see what data in the coming months shows
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, February 06, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, February 06, 2025
Richard Stallman (RMS) Confirms Next Week's Talk in Europe
He gave at least 2 talks in Europe last month
Nationalism As A Service (NaaS) by Microsoft Azure, Gutting the US Government for Profit
Will Microsoft be receiving bailouts as a reward for all this?
Rumours of IBM Layoffs Apparently Confirmed Yesterday, IBM Canada Consulting Impacted (as Rumoured)
when IBM has layoffs we must also read it as Red Hat layoffs
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Voicemail Sucks and Night of Lights
Links for the day
Links 06/02/2025: YouTube Takedowns Out of Control, 'DOGE' Breaking Laws
Links for the day
IBM Red Hat on "era of cloud computing", pushing "hey hi" (AI) hype in Microsoft Azure
LLM slop might actually be more benign than Microsoft promotion
Corruption and Rule-Breaking Prevail at the European Patent Office (EPO), Europe's Second-Largest Institution
The law does not really exist at the EPO; it can be perceived as merely a "recommendation"
statCounter: More Countries Where Windows is Around 1% "Market Share" (People Have Moved to Android/Linux)
in some nations Windows is already 1% or less
404 Media Says "Workers at NASA Told to Drop Everything to Scrub Mentions of Indigenous People, Women from Its Websites" But There's Also Accessibility in the Firing Line
In the case of abandoning accessibility, everyone stands to be hurt and proprietary software can be brought in to replace standards
When BetaNews Writes Real Articles About "Linux" They Promote Windows
The Web is in a bad state. We need to at least try to correct this.
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Cynicism and "Real Magic on the C64"
Links for the day
Links 06/02/2025: New Sanctions, Layoffs, and Executive Orders
Links for the day
Distros and Desktop Environments, Devices
GNU/Linux focused
New Rumours of IBM Layoffs in 2025, IBM Consulting Still Struggles, Based on Management
"Hey hi" (AI) has been a common excuse for business failure
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 05, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 05, 2025
Links 05/02/2025: Kessler Syndrome and News Online
Links for the day
statCounter: Monaco Now 7% GNU/Linux ("Proper")
GNU/Linux, not counting Chromebooks, is on the rise
Many Parts of Google Lose Money
It's quite apparent that many parts of Google - even some that rely on ad revenue or push ads - aren't profiting
European Internet Forum (EIF) is Dominated by American Corporations and Microsoft Lobbyists, Staff Take the Lead
Should the officials over here or the European Parliament pay attention to these people?
Links 05/02/2025: Connection without Connectivity and Unionised Grocery Workers
Links for the day
Just Because People on Top of the Microsoft Pyramid Made a Lot of Money Doesn't Mean Microsoft is Wealthy
The bigger they are the harder they fall
Gemini Links 05/02/2025: Learning, Madman Ruling a Mad Country, Back in Geminispace
Links for the day
statCounter Shows "WIntel" Chasing a Dying Market
Microsoft acts as if it's running out of money
Free Software Foundation, Inc. (FSF) Still Raising Money, Richard Stallman Contributes
total exceeding $430k
A Lot of Stuff About "Linux" in Google News is LLM Slop, Fake 'Articles'
It seems to be getting worse
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 04, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, February 04, 2025