11. Patents.
You receive the Program with a covenant from each author and conveyor of the Program, and of any material, conveyed under this License, on which the Program is based, that the covenanting party will not assert (or cause others to assert) any of the party's essential patent claims in the material that the party conveyed, against you, arising from your exercise of rights under this License. If you convey a covered work, you similarly covenant to all recipients, including recipients of works based on the covered work, not to assert any of your essential patent claims in the covered work.
If you convey a covered work, knowingly relying on a non-sublicensable patent license that is not generally available to all, you must either (1) act to shield downstream users against the possible patent infringement claims from which your license protects you, or (2) ensure that anyone can copy the Corresponding Source of the covered work, free of charge and under the terms of this License, through a publicly available network server or other readily accessible means.
Nothing in this License shall be construed as excluding or limiting any implied license or other defenses to infringement that may otherwise be available to you under applicable patent law.
... "(a qual nós apoiamos também)"
A questão é que este acordo entre a Novell e Microsoft indicou uma falha na GPLv2, e portanto de fato não viola a GPLv2. Por sorte, como o Stallman observou[1], foi bom isto ter acontecido agora, pois as mudanças necessárias serão introduzidas já na GPLv3.
As internas deste acordo ainda são nebulosas --ao menos para mim--, mas se de fato encaminhar para a revelação de um pacto do tipo "a Microsoft isenta usuários/desenvolvedores Novell de patentes mas não os demais" então a Novell dança, segundo a GPLv3.
1.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/tokyo-rms-transcript#novell-ms