Patent agreements are probably the most controversed partnerships if we'd be talking in terms of open source. Existing or possible partnerships between companies such as Novell or Red Hat and Microsoft have always kept the headline on many news channels and they've also been the hot topic for numerous, more or less boring, debates.
What is a "patent" and why does it stir so many controversies? A software patent actually does not even have a universally accepted definition (anyone surprised? why not?). Such a definition, the most spread one, would be that proposed by the Foundation
for a Free Information, that a software patent is "a patent on any performance of a computer realised by means of a computer program". A software patent can also be seen as a computer-implemented invention (CII), which is also the term used by the European Patent Office (EPO). One EPO definition of a CII is "an invention whose implementation involves the use of a computer, computer network or other programmable apparatus, the invention having one or more features which are realised wholly or partly by means of a computer program."
The Electronic Frontier Foundation deals with thorny issues, defending free speech, privacy, innovation and consumer rights today. The EEF has also made a lot of efforts in the software patents' domain. They are maybe the harshest enemies of the so-called "bogus patents" through their major initiative, materialized in the Patent Busting Project.
Nat Friedman, Novell's chief technology and strategy officer for open-source, claimed in an interview at the Open Source Business Conference from San Francisco, that Novell company intends to fund EEF's project. Therefore, Novell would have to work for the patent reform and also to remove patent hitches from otherwise open standards.
"Novell is supporting us to ensure patents aren't going to hurt innovation...Novell is now sponsoring us to export our patent-busting program to Europe", said Shari Steele, executive director with EFF.
In response to the rumors that Novell actually tries to rehabilitate its image after it was accused by some because of the partnership closed with Microsoft regarding the sale of the Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server, Friedman stated:
"It's fair to say we thought a lot about the patent system in the last six months. I hope it gives people a more full perspective on what we at Novell believe and what we're doing."
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