Comments

• Shane Coyle

  2007-05-24 15:35:23

  This is similar to what they were saying around when the Novell deal was announced.

  Asked whether Microsoft would consider revealing what parts of Linux allegedly violated the company’s intellectual property so that open-source developers could throw out the offending code, Kaefer demurred, saying it would not be “very productive.”
  
  “Patents are hard to understand. You have to have a certain level of expertise to understand the scope. And there are legitimate questions about patent quality,” he said. “The reality is that you’d have to look at thousands of patents and thousands of products. To focus on every single one would be prohibitive.”

  
  
  I have argued that this absurd industry methodology is leading to the cartelization of the software industry, in which a substantial portfolio of legally spurious patents is the membership requirement.
  
  Novell, as a cartel member, has just as much to gain by locking out small competitors as Microsoft.