IP sues Linux vendors Red Hat, Novell For Patent Infringement

The patent holding company IP Innovation, LLC and Technology Licensing Corp. have filed a patent infringement claim against Linux vendors Red Hat Inc. and Novell Inc. for alleged breach of patents for a User Interface that shares Multiple Workspaces on Linux.

The plaintiffs accused defendants Red Hat Inc. and Novell of allegedly committing acts of infringement through products including the Red Hat Linux system, the Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop and the Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Server.

In their suit, which was filed on Tuesday (October 9) in the U.S. District Court in Eastern Texas, the two companies claimed that both the desktop and server versions of Linux distributed by the two vendors infringe on three patents held by IP Innovation.

The plaintiff companies claimed they own all three infringed patents, including one U.S. Patent No. 5,072,412 that describes a computer operating system interface with "Multiple Workspaces for Sharing Display System Objects." The patent was originally granted to Xerox on Dec. 10, 1991. The patent referenced that company's earlier patents, dating back to 1984, that dealt with graphical user interfaces.

IP Innovation and Carson City, Nev., Technology Licensing also contended that the infringing activities by the defendants have been deliberate and willful because they were previously notified of the infringement. Technology Licensing is a company that acquires and licenses intellectual property primarily involving electronics for the television industry.

The lawsuit, which is believed to be the first patent infringement lawsuit involving Linux, seeks increased damages from the court and a permanent injunction prohibiting any further infringement. Besides the damages, IP Innovation and Technology Licensing are seeking other relief that the court or a jury may deem just and proper.

"Red Hat's and Novell's infringement, contributory infringement and inducement to infringe has injured plaintiffs and plaintiffs are entitled to recover damages adequate to compensate them for such infringement but in no event less than a reasonable royalty," IP Innovation said in the filing.

The case, filed under the case no. 2:2007cv00447, has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Leonard E. Davis, and T. John Ward Jr. of Ward & Smith Law Firm in Longview is representing the plaintiff IP Innovation, which is a subsidiary of The Acacia Technologies Group, a division of Acacia Research Corp. that develops, acquires, licenses and enforces patented technologies.

Meanwhile, Red Hat spokeswoman Leigh Day on Friday declined to say much than the company is aware of the suit and "will review the situation."

“We're assessing this filing now," said Novell spokesman Bruce Lowry in an e-mail. "Obviously, we'll defend our interests. But it's too early at this stage to talk about specifics on this case, including whether there might be a role for a joint approach with Red Hat."

The recent patent infringement lawsuit came just days after Microsoft’s Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said he wanted to see other companies besides Microsoft to force Red Hat and Novell to stop use of their intellectual property.

In May, Microsoft provided a stark tally of 230 Microsoft patents the company believes are violated by Linux, one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software (FOSS).

The free and open-source software at the time was accused by the software giant of violating 42 Microsoft patents and an additional 65 by its user interface and other design elements. Also, OpenOffice.org was accused of infringing 45, along with 83 more in other free and open-source programs, making it a total of more than 230 patents violation as stated by Microsoft’s top lawyer Brad Smith in an interview with America’s business magazine, Fortune.