CptnHoldingsLlc
Latest
Apple, others withdraw filing for Novell patent purchase
CPTN Holdings LLC, a consortium of companies which include Microsoft, Apple, EMC and Oracle, has withdrawn its filing to purchase 882 patents originally held by Novell. In December, the group submitted a plan to the German government's anti-trust authority notifying them of their plan to purchase these patents for $450 million. These patents were offered as part of Attachmate's deal to buy Novell. The purchase of these patents by CPTN was opposed by open source organizations, including the Open Source Initiative and the Free Software Foundation Europe. Both open source groups filed complaints against this transaction with German regulators. In its complaint, the Open Source Initiative noted, "The founders and leaders of CPTN have a long history of opposing and misrepresenting the value of open source software, which is at the heart of Web infrastructure and of many of the most widely used software products and services. The sole or leading competition for several products from the CPTN principals are open source." Despite the withdrawal of this application, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed that CPTN still plans to purchase these Novell patents. Instead of a change of heart, this decision may have been a procedural step that would let CPTN modify its filing. According to this theory, CPTN could make changes that would ease the concerns of open source groups and allow the purchase to proceed more smoothly.
Apple, Microsoft, others acquire Novell patents for $450 million
Software company Novell recently had to reorganize after an acquisition by Attachmate, and as a result, a number of patents held by the company went up the air for grabs. Apple has decided to team with Microsoft, and picked up the patents along with a few other partners for $450 million. It's not quite known what will happen with these, but the company formed by the partnership, CPTN Holdings LLC, now owns 882 patents originally filed by Novell. Filing papers show that this company was "a consortium organized by Microsoft," so presumably the patents will simply be held by the company to protect certain technologies if necessary, or Microsoft and its partners (including Apple) will split them up according to some agreement. This isn't the only chunk of patents that Apple is looking to pick up -- the bankrupt Nortel Networks is also trying to sell off a swath of 4,000 patents worth over $1 billion all together, and Apple is reportedly interested in buying at least a few of those. Microsoft and Google are also aiming to pick up some of Nortel's patents. And all of these patents are just more ammo in a few different ongoing lawsuits, between Apple and other cell phone manufacturers. At this point, we're getting into a level of abstraction that seems pretty far removed from the reason patents were invented in the first place. But as long as Apple can gain an advantage by patenting as many technologies as possible and buying as many patents as it can, it'll play the system as much as is legal. [via Macrumors]
