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Novell Technology Assurance Program

Novell Intellectual Property Protection

It's about enterprise-class software and support—and your peace of mind. The new Novell Technology Assurance Program provides some of the industry's most comprehensive coverage against intellectual property (IP) infringement claims.

This protection extends far beyond our broad Novell Indemnification Program; you also benefit from the Novell and Microsoft patent cooperation agreement. It ensures that when you buy any Novell products—whether Linux-based or proprietary—you receive a patent covenant from Microsoft. The Novell Technology Assurance Program also affirms our willingness to use the large Novell software patent portfolio as a deterrent to patent aggression. With the Novell Technology Assurance Program and our ownership of the UNIX copyright, we are able to support our customers with one of the most extensive IP protection offerings in the industry.

Through the Novell Technology Assurance Program, you can deploy any Novell products—whether Linux-based or proprietary—with the guarantee that we will protect you against future challenges to the copyrights, patents, trademarks or trade secrets of the technologies in these solutions.

Indemnification Program

Making Novell products safe and viable options for your business

How does this program work?

Indemnification is offered for copyright, patent, trademark and trade secret infringement claims made by third parties against Novell customers. This protection applies to all products offered by Novell for customers who:

  • Purchase and maintain ongoing subscription(s) to upgrades and updates
  • Purchase and maintain annual technical support (either separately or included with maintenance)

There is no registration requirement for the Novell Indemnification Program, but we recommend that you login and accept the program terms and conditions.

Existing Novell Login Customers
If you already have a Novell Login account, sign in to access the Novell Indemnification Program registration process.

New Novell Login Customers
If you do not have a current Novell Login account, register to create your new account (choose the "create new account" button), and then use your account to access the Novell Indemnification Program registration process.

Agreement With Microsoft

Under the Novell and Microsoft patent cooperation agreement, when you buy any Novell products—whether Linux-based or proprietary—you receive a patent covenant not to sue from Microsoft. Microsoft's covenant not to sue a Novell customer applies to a Novell offering independent of the channel of distribution and licensing terms, and whether any code is covered by GPLv2 or GPLv3. For the terms and conditions on Microsoft's covenant view it online.

Patent Portfolio

At Novell, we use our large software patent portfolio to protect customers against patent infringement challenges. This offer applies equally to all Linux-based software and proprietary software from Novell. Novell owns patents in operating systems technology, word processing, directory software and other areas. These Novell patents continue to be crucial elements in the current computing environment.

If a challenger attempts to infringe on Novell patents, Novell will respond swiftly and forcefully. This protection applies to cases where open source technology is not an original Novell technology, but is part of a Novell offering.

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