Facing criticism for its patent pact with Microsoft, Novell on Wednesday said it's supporting the Electronic Frontier Foundation's effort to challenge what it believes are bogus patents.

Novell is providing funding for the EFF's "patent-busting" effort, Nat Friedman, Novell's chief technology and strategy officer for open-source, said in an interview here at the Open Source Business Conference. In addition, Novell will work for patent reform in general and work to remove patent encumbrances from otherwise open standards, he said.

"Novell is supporting us to ensure patents aren't going to hurt innovation," said Shari Steele, EFF's executive director. In particular, "Novell is now sponsoring us to...export our patent-busting program to Europe," where EFF will hire legal representation, she said.

Software patents are a thorny issue in the technology industry.

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