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Novell Files Definitive Proxy Statement: Someone May Be Interested in the Patents and "Maybe More"

By Pamela Jones et al.

Novell in a filing with the SEC it calls its Definitive Proxy Statement reveals that this month, on January 11, someone contacted Novell wishing to discuss buying the notorious 882 patents and maybe more:

On January 11, 2011, representatives of Party E contacted one of our executive officers who reported that such representatives had been following recent media reports of our pending transactions and were prepared to discuss "reasonable, competitive terms" of a transaction with us. On January 13, 2011, a representative of Party E clarified that their interest is in a transaction related to an acquisition of the patents and patent applications being sold pursuant to the Patent Purchase Agreement, "and maybe more."

This filing was on January 14, so stay tuned.

The 882 patents turn out not to be 882 after all. There are only 861, and the Microsoft consortium would like some of Attachmate's to make up for the few they've discovered don't exist... Wait. What? Attachmate was to get only patents and copyrights associated with Novell's UNIX and Linux businesses, right? Microsoft wants some of those? Like, um... some UNIX copyrights perchance? Novell says Attachment won't "currently" consent.

What about later? Is this some kind of hustle?

Full post as published by Groklaw on January 18, 2011 (boomark / email).