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17 December 2010, 14:30

Apple, EMC, Oracle and Microsoft buy Novell patents

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Zoom Screenshot of the record on the German antitrust authority web site.
A note on the German federal antitrust authority's web site reveals which firms are behind the consortium CPTN Holdings LLC, which is taking over nearly 900 patents from Novell: Microsoft, Apple, EMC and Oracle. The note appeared on the web site where "current mergers" are announced and is dated December 9, 2010. The holding's product market is "patents". Patent expert Florian Müller says he was made aware of the matter by a Twitter user.

In November, it was announced that Attachmate would take over most of Novell and that CPTN would be taking over 882 patents at a price of $450 million. At the time, it was not clear who was behind CPTN aside from Microsoft. The blog All Things Digital at the Wall Street Journal cites an insider who claims that the patents are an inexpensive hedge. However, up to now, there has not been any information about which patents and which of Novell's intellectual property rights will go to CPTN.

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