Novell is facing suit over patent

Novell Inc. of Waltham, a major distributor of the free Linux computer operating system, is being sued for patent infringement by a California firm.

The number-one Linux distributor, Red Hat Inc. of Raleigh, N.C., is also targeted by the federal lawsuit filed this week by IP Innovation, a business unit of Acacia Research Corp. of Newport Beach, Calif. Acacia specializes in acquiring patents issued to other companies and collecting royalties for the use of these patents.

The IP Innovation suit is based on a 1991 patent originally issued to Xerox Corp., which describes a method for displaying icons and windows on computer screens. This year, IP Innovation filed a similar suit against Apple Inc., claiming the user interface of Apple's Macintosh computers violated their patent. Apple settled by paying an undisclosed sum for a license to use the patent.

Novell spokesman Bruce Lowry said his company has not had a chance to study the complaint, which was filed Tuesday in US District Court for the eastern district of Texas. "We will defend our interests," Lowry added.

Linux is "open source" software, created by legions of volunteer programmers. For years, traditional software vendors, including Microsoft Corp., have claimed that some Linux code has been illegally copied from commercial software products and that Linux uses patented innovations without paying royalties.

Last year, Novell and Microsoft formed an alliance that included cross-licensing of each other's patents. Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer this month warned that Red Hat's failure to make a similar deal could force its customers to compensate Microsoft for use of its intellectual property. Ballmer added that small companies with patent claims would begin filing lawsuits against Linux distributors. The IP Innovation suit was filed the next week.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.