The $15.5 Million Patent Defense?

Commerce One Inc.'s 39 Web services patents that went to a mysterious high bidder, JGR Acquisition Inc., for $15.5 million, in a December auction at the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco are reportedly now in the hands of Novell. It has been reported that Novell will use the patents for defensive purposes and doesn't plan to use them for licensing revenue. However, Novell's director of PR areportedly told eWeek on May 3, 2005 that "We clearly are a believer in open source, and we are always considering alternative ways to promote open source. But I can't speculate at this stage on specific future actions we might take around patents."