With the closing of Novell's acquisition of SUSE LINUX and the addition of the SUSE LINUX distribution to Novell's product offerings, Novell is now unique among Linux vendors in offering a full stack Linux solution, providing global technical support for Linux, and, through its new Novell Linux Indemnification Programme, giving enterprise customers additional reassurance about deploying Linux in their organisations.

"Novell is committed to the success of Linux", stated Jack Messman, chairman and CEO of Novell. "With our new indemnification programme, we are reducing the barriers to the adoption of Linux in the enterprise."

Linux and open source solutions have grown rapidly in recent years, moving from peripheral uses into more business critical functions. As enterprises consider making strategic investments in Linux, they face the question of indemnification, a standard component of most traditional proprietary software offerings but generally unavailable for Linux. Novell's Linux Indemnification Programme will afford qualifying Novell Linux customers a measure of protection against potential copyright infringement claims.

"This is an important next step in the industry's move to make Linux safe from litigation for end customers", stated Martin Fink, vice president of Linux, HP. "Since September, only HP customers have been able to move forward with confidence in their business-critical Linux environments. We are pleased to see and are in favour of Novell's effort to extend protection and peace of mind to its customer base."

Novell's indemnification programme is designed for enterprise customers of Linux. Under the programme indemnification is offered for copyright infringement claims made by third parties against registered Novell customers who obtain SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 8 and who after January 12, 2004 obtain upgrade protection and a qualifying technical support contract from Novell or a participating Novell or SUSE LINUX channel partner.

Customers must accept the programme terms and conditions including caps and other limitations.

Novell also made available additional information on the unique contractual and intellectual property rights it holds because of its position in the historical ownership chain of UNIX and UnixWare. These rights include:

• Novell's rights to license UNIX technology pursuant to a Technology License Agreement between SCO and Novell, including Novell's right to authorize its customers to use that UNIX technology in their internal business operations.
• Novell's rights to take action on behalf of SCO under legacy UNIX SVRX licenses pursuant to the Asset Purchase Agreement between SCO and Novell.
• As previously confirmed by Novell, copyright registrations on UNIX SVRX releases, consistent with Novell's position that it retained ownership of these copyrights.

For those enterprise users of Linux who are not currently Novell SUSE LINUX customers, Novell will soon announce a special programme whereby they can become Novell SUSE LINUX customers and participate in the indemnification programme. "We believe our new Linux indemnification programme, supported by our unique legal rights, will provide enterprise customers with one more reason to include Linux in their information technology plans", Jack Messman stated.