So, next stage in Microsoft’s war against Free Software commences. Novell sold all their patents to Microsoft-owned consortium, while Mono goes to Seattle-based Attachmate Corporation, in order to attach more victims for Microsoft.

SEC filling is very clear:

Also on November 21, 2010, Novell entered into a Patent Purchase Agreement (the “Patent Purchase Agreement”) with CPTN Holdings LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and consortium of technology companies organized by Microsoft Corporation (“CPTN”). The Patent Purchase Agreement provides that, upon the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in the Patent Purchase Agreement, Novell will sell to CPTN all of Novell’s right, title and interest in 882 patents (the “Assigned Patents”) for $450 million in cash (the “Patent Sale”).

Microsoft acquired all Novell’s patents, through a proxy called CPTN Holdings LLC. From there, patents will probably end up with some Microsoft-loyal trolls like Paul Allen or Nathan Myhrvold, but this is just a guess. What is certain, $450m in cash buys Microsoft a patent gun to scare and extort companies using GNU/Linux. That is their only option, since Windows is fallen far behind and is beyond repair.