News briefs: Vendors unite to keep Linux patents open

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• Five of the biggest names in technology have funded a new venture called the Open Invention Network that will acquire patents and offer them royalty free to promote the Linux open source operating system. The Open Invention Network was formed with undisclosed investments from IBM, Novell, Koninklijke Philips Electronics, Sony and Red Hat, and will be headed by Jerry Rosenthal, who was most recently vice president of IBM's Intellectual Property and Licensing business. When the Open Invention Network acquires patents they will be available to any company, institution or individual that agrees not to assert its patents against the Linux operating system or certain Linux-related applications, the group said in a statement. Among its initial patent holdings will be a set of business-to-business e-commerce patents purchased from Commerce One by a Novell subsidiary.
• Google's enterprise unit was recently entrusted with the business versions of the Google Earth mapping products, and executives are discussing ways to integrate them with the company's enterprise search products. "There's definitely a lot of potential for integration between the Google Earth products and the Search Appliance and the Google Mini. We're starting to look at what might make sense," says Dave Girouard, general manager of the Google enterprise unit. Google acquired what are now known as the Google Earth products last year when it bought Keyhole. The most basic product, known as Google Earth, is a free downloadable mapping application with a multiterabyte database of satellite images and a video game-type user interface that lets users "fly" around the globe, zipping from destination to destination, zooming in and out of cities. Google's enterprise unit is at a preliminary stage of discussions over ways to integrate Google Earth Pro and Google Earth Enterprise with its enterprise search wares.
• Yahoo scuttled talks to take an interest in AOL after learning the proposed terms of the deal, a company spokeswoman said last week. The rejection narrows the field of suitors for AOL. Microsoft and Google have reportedly expressed an interest in the Time Warner unit, but no definitive deal has been struck. Yahoo's rejection of a deal came two days after the company's CEO, Terry Semel, and Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons met in New York. Rumors have circulated that Comcast may be interested in a piece of AOL. While AOL has had a declining number of subscribers over the last two years, it still had 20.1 million fee-paying subscribers in the United States as of Sept. 30. It has dropped fees for much of its content and tried to take in more advertising revenue. Google has an agreement to provide search technology to AOL, while AOL in turn runs ads from Google's advertising network.
• Oracle's CFO Greg Maffei will soon take on the CEO job at investment company Liberty Media. The appointment removes some of the mystery around Maffei's hurried departure from Oracle after four months. Oracle announced Maffei's resignation after Wall Street analysts began publicly questioning his absence at industry events. Oracle said at the time that Maffei was departing for a "terrific professional opportunity." Maffei, who in June became Oracle's third co-president, reportedly left after personality conflicts with other top executives and the realization that he would not soon succeed Larry Ellison as Oracle's CEO. Maffei, a longtime Microsoft executive, spent five years as CEO of 360networks before joining Oracle.
• Hubert Mantel, a founder of the SuSE Linux project, has resigned from Novell, which acquired SuSE in January 2004. Mantel was one of four founders of SuSE, a consulting group that focused on creating a packaged version of Linux. He was a longtime maintainer of the SuSE project, but Novell notes that dozens of other developers work on SuSE. Mantel didn't immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment. Earlier this month, Novell announced restructuring moves, including a 600-worker layoff and a plan to focus its efforts on high-growth markets such as Linux.

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