"We do not believe that such claims have a valid basis under contract, intellectual property, or any other law," Microsoft's lawyers said.

"In fact, we do not believe that Microsoft needs a license under GPL to carry out any aspect of its collaboration with Novell, including its distribution of support certificates, even if Novell chooses to distribute GPLv3 code in the future. Furthermore, Microsoft does not grant any implied or express patent rights under or as a result of GPLv3, and GPLv3 licensors have no authority to represent or bind Microsoft in any way."

In other words, it's denying the contention of the Free Software Foundation, and the left wing of the open source movement, that as soon as Novell ships GPL 3 code then the patent covenants that the infamous Microsoft-Novell deal extends to Novell users passes to all GPL 3 users, neutering any further Microsoft patent claims.

However, Microsoft's not about to put its patent portfolio at risk in such uncharted waters and so, keeping its powder dry for, oh, at least the possibility of suing somebody, it said that - "to avoid any doubt or legal debate" - it's "decided that the Novell support certificates that we distribute to customers will not entitle the recipient to receive from Novell, or any other party [think Dell], any subscription for support and updates relating to code licensed under GPLv3. We will closely study the situation and decide whether to expand the scope of the certificates in the future."

So it appears the FSF and the GPL 3 got Microsoft to blink and its lawyers to parsing words like "propagating" and "conveying" that FSF enshrined in GPL 3 to catch Microsoft out.

Enter Novell, which is not blinking.

In a statement of its own last Friday Novell said it's going to deliver GPL 3 technologies despite "Microsoft's current position, taken unilaterally."

"Independent of Microsoft's position," it said, "we would like to make clear our commitment to out customers that Novell will continue to distribute SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with its full set of functionality and features, including those components that are licensed under GPLv3. For those customers who will obtain their Linux via a certificate from Microsoft, Novell will provide them with a regular SUSE Linux Enterprise Server subscription, regardless of the terms of the certificates provided by Microsoft."

Both the Microsoft and Novell statements say the patent covenants still apply regardless of whether it's GPL 2 or GPL 3 code.

Microsoft's statement is at www.microsoft.com/presspass/misc/07-05statement.mspx
.