"We suspect that we have seen many of these proxies before, e.g. in OOXML, in GPL, and in XenSource."Several months ago we speculated that while Microsoft has legal and moral commitments to Novell (although no side has promised not to sue), Microsoft could use another proxy to launch patent attacks on Novell. We suspect that we have seen many of these proxies before, e.g. in OOXML, in GPL, and in XenSource. SCO is a classic example that no-one can forget.

Is Acacia a proxy in Microsoft's chess set as well? The issue is still being researched and we finally have some more prominent people coming to some conclusions, or at least assertions that are backed by strong evidence.

Have a look at this new article where Microsoft is said to be playing puppets again.

This time though, while Ballmer slinks away to try to con … convince people that Microsoft Unified Communications somehow offers people more than what Cisco's VOIP (voice over IP) been offering customers for years, a patent attack finally launches at Linux. Specifically, IP Innovation, a subsidiary of Acacia Technologies Group, has filed a patent infringement claim against Linux distributors Novell and Red Hat.

So was it just timing, or was it something more? Let's take a look at the players.

In another new article, Microsoft is again being compared to SCO and Novell's role does not escape a mention.

It is almost a year since Microsoft struck its controversial intellectual property deal with Novell, and almost five months since the company claimed that various pieces of unspecified open source software are chock-full of Microsoft patent infringements, but when it comes down to the question of exactly what IP Microsoft is talking about, we are still none the wiser.

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Without any kind of substantive claims to back up these statements, this is pretty much the dictionary definition of FUD. Fear, uncertainty and doubt.

The same kind of blathering that drove The SCO Group into the ground.

There is a lot of evidence that shows SCO's ties with Microsoft, but not as much that shows the connection between the trailblazer patent troll and Microsoft. Time will tell how strong an evidence (if not conviction) can be gather to solve this riddle once and for all. As far as Novell goes, it remains to be discovered just how much in terms of personal benefits Novell executives received after tactlessly signing the submissive deal with Microsoft.