Have another quick look at this old video where the Novell/Microsoft deal is formally announced.

Ron Hovsepian has stubbornly denied claims about patents. He said that the deal was never -- at least in his own eyes -- about patents, but if you skip to 31mins 31secs in this stream, then you will see Ron smiling and even noddling when Steve Ballmer, who sits right next to him, speaks about "patent salesmen" and "a patent resolution". Watch the video and skip the dross if you want to see this for yourselves.

This is fairly concrete evidence that Ron's subsequent comments on this issue were nothing but "damage control".