Open Source: Tech giants fund a group that plans to acquire patents and, in turn, make them available royalty-free. IBM, Novell, Red Hat and Sony formed the Open Invention Network and among its initial patent purchases will be a crop from Commerce One concerning business-to-business electronic commerce. The idea, of course, is to quell the threat of patent infringement lawsuits, but some experts maintain that bad patents will only spur proprietary-minded vendors to launch WMDs aimed at the open source industry. Product preview: With the release this week of its latest database, dubbed SQL Server 2005 and previously code-named Yukon, Microsoft has created a swath of new features and improvements broad enough to obscure the previous database on which it’s built, Sean McCown found when testing it for the article SQL Server 2005 piles it on. “Although DBAs definitely face a learning curve, ultimately they’ll find that the new edition’s more streamlined toolset offers an easier and more unified management experience,” McCown adds. Columnists’ Corner: Oliver Rist contends that upgrading to SQL Server 2005 is mandatory, and not just because it’s a better database. “Microsoft will nag and pummel you until you upgrade anyway, so it’s best to do so on your own terms and schedule.” Okay, okay, that’s not the only reason. Yukon comes in from the cold and brings along some “sleek and curvaceous features” that make it hard to resist. (Yes, Rist is still talking databases.) But it’s best to read up on the administration capabilities and be sure to have fast and automatic backup in place. (Again, still on databases.) Quoteworthy: If you can engage the CEO in the details, even if his/her initial reason for doing so is to show you the error of your ways, sometimes a light bulb will go on. Sometimes for the CEO; sometimes it will turn out the CEO was right, too. Sometimes isn’t usually, but it is usually worth a shot. — Bob Lewis, in Advice Line, on handling a CEO who starts with the answer.The news beat: Some users of Microsoft’s Software Update Services are not even receiving security updates because the company is unable to deliver to them the patch containing fixes to three critical graphics bugs. Two days after former Microsoft and BEA exec Tod Nielsen assumes the CEO post at Borland, the company puts forth its road map for Windows developer tools — including what it views as a viable alternative to Visual Studio, which shipped this week. And Google is in the earliest stages of discussing how to link Google Earth to its Search Appliance and Google Mini. Technology Industry