Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility has been approved. However the U.S. and European Union government said that they will be ensuring that patents critical to the telecom industry would not be abused.

Novell filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) over their WordPerfect computer program. Jurors were unable to reach a decision over the lawsuit. The jurors at a federal court in Salt Lake City told the judge yesterday that they have been in a deadlock after they had been deliberating in a deadlock for 3 days. U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz had dismissed the 12-member panel and some of them left in tears. The trial started on October 18th.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates appeared in a federal courthouse in Salt Lake City recently to testify in a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit filed by the WordPerfect creator. The WordPerfect creator said that several last minute changes to technical features on Microsoft Windows 95 would no longer support his software.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has made an agreement with Attachmate’s SUSE unit. Attachmate, the parent company of Novell Inc., will be extending a collaboration agreement and patent protection deal with Microsoft. Microsoft will be paying $100 million on support certificates for SUSE Linux Enterprise. This helps customers run Windows and Linux servers. Attachmate and Microsoft agree not to sue each other’s customers for patent violations. Attachmate fully acquired Novell this past April. [GeekWire]

CPTN Holdings is an organization that has acquired 882 patents from Novell as part of a deal with Attachmate. CPTN Holdings is a front for a group of companies that include Microsoft, Apple, EMC, and Oracle.

Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) has entered a definitive merger agreement with Attachmate Corporation. Attachmate will be acquiring Novell at $6.10 per share in cash. The transaction value at that price makes it a $2.2 billion deal. Attachmate is owned by an investment group led by Francisco Partners, Golden Gate Capital, and Thoma Bravo.