Red Hat, Inc. announced that today a jury in federal court in Marshall, Texas, returned a verdict in favor of Red Hat, Inc. and Novell, Inc. in a case alleging patent infringement brought by IP Innovation LLC, a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corporation and Technology Licensing Corporation.

Unlike last week's problem, however, four of the six vulnerabilities disclosed also can be exploited on Mac and Linux machines that have RealPlayer installed. Updated editions are also available for those operating systems, with links available from the security bulletin RealNetworks posted on its site.

At this week's Digital Music Forum, lawyers managing digital rights for Microsoft's Zune music download site and RealNetworks' Rhapsody said that they too believe digital rights management to be more of a headache than an asset.

"End Software Patents (ESP) has filed an amicus curiae brief in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's (CAFC) rehearing of the In re Bilski case. The rehearing could lead to the elimination of patents on software.

Today, Red Hat took a public stand challenging the standards for patenting software. In the Biliski case that is now before the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, this patent issue is ripe for consideration.

In the old "pre 2000" day, the objective of most technology companies when they applied for patent protection was to ensure that their products and technologies were not copied by their competitors. The idea was that thanks to the patents you enjoyed about 20 years of exclusive use of your technology, after which everyone was free to use it because by then it was considered obvious.

A federal judge's ruling Friday may help proponents of Linux open-source software sidestep a significant legal threat.

Patent Absurdity explores the case of software patents and the history of judicial activism that led to their rise, and the harm being done to software developers and the wider economy. The film is based on a series of interviews conducted during the Supreme Court's review of in re Bilski — a case that could have profound implications for the patenting of software.

An anonymous poster told us about a recent order from Judge Kimball in another case, unrelated to SCO, but one that references his own decision in SCO v. Novell. So I took a look at the order, and it answers a question I've had, namely, what if, at trial, a judge were to realize he'd made a mistake on an earlier ruling on summary judgment motions? Is it too late to fix it?