Microsoft Deutschland GmbH has been fined $9 million by the German Bundeskartellamt (cartel or anti-trust agency) for anticompetitive MS Office
pricing. Microsoft allegedly fixed a price at a retailer for its Office Home & Student 2007 product.

While Microsoft blogger Brandon LeBlanc is celebrating his employer as winner in the netbook market, opportunities are opening up in the Asian market for the netbook's even smaller relative, the so-called mobile internet device.

The patent war between Microsoft and TomTom may be resolved in court, but it hasn't ended. At least that's what the lawyers at the Software Freedom Law Center think, and Jim Zemlin of the Linux Foundation is further considering the implications.

The Redmond giant and the Dutch navigation company have agreed on a settlement whereby TomTom will pay Microsoft for the use of some of its patents.

Novell announced today that SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) is officially out in version 11. The SLES extensions for Mono and the desktop version SLED 11 should also concurrently hit the market. A high-availability extension is to follow.

Navigation software maker TomTom is now beating its drums against Microsoft for patent rights and has aligned with the Open Invention Network.