Novell and EFF form patent alliance

Novell and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are teaming up to work on reforms to software patents worldwide.

‘It is increasingly obvious that software patents are not a meaningful measure of innovation,’ said Jeff Jaffe, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Novell. ‘But we believe that software patent system reform is necessary to promote software innovation going forward.’

The partnership will work together to lobby governments and organisations to develop legislation and policies around patents to promote innovation.

Novell will also contribute significant resources to the EFF's ‘Patent Busting’ project, which aims to invalidate patents that particularly impose software developers and internet users.

‘EFF has long been at the forefront in addressing the key challenges of the digital age,’ said EFF Executive Director Shari Steele. ‘The support of Novell will be a great boon to our efforts to rid the industry of innovation-killing patents. We hope Novell's example encourages other software vendors to join the effort.’