1 December: Five Stories You Need to Read

Yahoo!News reports that Microsoft and Novell have already contacted more than 100 potential customers in the United States and Europe to sell interoperability deals between SuSE Linux and Windows.  According to Susan Heystee, Novell’s newly appointed head of the controversial partnership, the reception has been “extremely positive”.

The Economist writes that the new Democratic majority presents a mixed bag for small firms. According to the publication, although small firms’ owners tend to agree that Mr. Bush is too cozy with big and powerful corporations, many of the Democrats’ favorite ideas, such as a pledge to raise the minimum wage and a fondness for taxing people after death, also worry them.

In CNet News, Mike Wendy observes that the balance between the exclusive rights of private property holders and those using their creations “is clearly out of whack, fostered by au courant reportage and blogging that dissuades many in the IT industry from public admission that they own valuable property, and that they have a right to be compensated for its use.”

According to CNet blog Crave, Apple recently filed for a patent that would protect the use of zirconia as a casing material for "a number of wireless handhelds, including a certain still-unannounced-but-geez-where-is-it product: the iPhone."

BusinessWeek predicts that “[n]ew patents scored by Nokia, IBM, and others should revolutionize Internet-calling, and breed legal battles for control of that red-hot market.”