Novell Made Public the MS Partnership Documents

Once with the concluding of the stock option investigation for Novell, the company was able to post its annual report. Novell's annual report on 2006 became interest issue for many people as it includes the agreements of the partnership closed with Microsoft in November 2006.

The 144 pages text does not cover all Microsoft-Novell partnership aspects, but it offers a full view of the three agreement documents: the technical agreement, the business agreement and, last but not least, the controversial patent cooperation agreement. As Pamela Jones well notices on her Groklaw website, there is an aspect in the contract that could ban Microsoft from distributing the SUSE Linux certificates in case the current text of the third draft of GNU GPL 3 coming against the current agreement is included in the final licenses.

"If the final version of GPLv3 contains terms or conditions that interfere with our agreement with Microsoft or our ability to distribute GPLv3 code, Microsoft may cease to distribute SUSE Linux coupons in order to avoid the extension of its patent covenants to a broader range of GPLv3 software recipients, we may need to modify our relationship with Microsoft under less advantageous terms than our current agreement, or we may be restricted in our ability to include GPLv3 code in our products, any of which could adversely affect our business and our operating results ... In such a case, we would likely explore alternatives to remedy the conflict, but there is no assurance that we would be successful in these efforts", was stated in the Novell filing.

Designed to enhance the interoperability between Linux and Windows, the Microsoft - Novell deal was seen by the Redmond- based company as "an historic bridging between the worlds of open-source and proprietary software that was created to address issues of interoperability and intellectual property for our customers". The release of the agreement documents did not seem to offense Microsoft in any way; moreover Horacio Gutierrez, vice president of IP and licensing with MS, stated that they will continue the efforts to offer similar solutions to the clients' increasing demand for interoperability.

You can read Novell's entire 10-K filing here.