If Microsoft and Novell anticipated any revenge by the GPL folks – as subsequently memorialized in the proposed GPLv3 rewrite, which seeks to gut the deal – then those termination or other provisions have been suppressed.

If the pair does have patent flame-up, they’ve bound themselves not to seek treble damages, but they can, say, complain all they like to the ITC.

The patents covered are defined by exceptions. It’s everything in the Microsoft and Novell portfolios – and future additions – except those specific open source exclusions listed above and what they call “foundry products” and “clone products.”

A foundry product is defined as “a product which is either (a) designed by a third party (or designed for a third party other than by a party) without substantial input from a party (“acting party”) and made, reproduced, sold, licensed, or otherwise transferred by the acting party, on essentially an exclusive basis, (i) to that third party, or (ii) to that third-party’s customers, or (iii) as directed by that third party; or (b) made, reproduced, sold, licensed or otherwise transferred through or by the acting party for the primary purpose of attempting to make such product subject to the covenants under the Covered Patents of the other party so that a third-party’s customers can receive the benefit of such covenants.”

A clone product means “a product (or major component thereof) of a party that has the same or substantially the same features and functionality as a then-existing product (or major component thereof) of the other party (“prior product”) and that (a) has the same or substantially the same user interface, or (b) implements all or substantially all of the application programming interfaces of the prior product. Those portions of a product that are otherwise licensed to one party from the other party, or that are compliant with a specification of a standards organization as to which the other Party has consented to the use of its patents therefor, shall not be considered in determining whether the product is a clone product.”