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Red Hat, Novell win verdict in Linux patent infringement case

By | May 1, 2010, 4:48pm PDT

More great news for Linux distributors Red Hat and Novell, which prevailed in a patent infringement case brought by IP Innovation.

IP Innovation, a unit of Acacia Research and holder of multiple patent portfolios, alleged that the two Linux companies infringed three patents that protect computer GUIs that span multiple work sites and that allow users to access icons remotely, the court documents show.

According to a report published by Bloomberg news, a jury in Marshall, Texas found that the patents in question were not valid and that neither Red Hat nor Novell were guilty of infringing on IP Innovation’s intellectual property.

In a press release, Red Hat said it will “remain stalwart in resisting bogus shakedown tactics.”

Novell recently celebrated the end of a copyright infringement lawsuit brought against it by SCO several years ago.

Now that the SCO and IP Innovation cases are disposed of, it anyone else want to take on Linux?

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Novell Inc., Lawsuit, Red Hat Inc., Open Source, Linux, Operating Systems, Software, Paula Rooney

Paula Rooney is a Boston-based writer who has followed the tech industry for almost two decades.

Disclosure

Paula Rooney

Paula Rooney owns no stock in the companies that she covers. She holds a 401K that is managed by Morgan Stanley.

Biography

Paula Rooney

Paula Rooney has covered the software and technology industry for more than 20 years, starting with semiconductor design and mini-computer systems at EDN News and later focused on PC software companies including Microsoft, Lotus, Oracle, Red Hat, Novell and other open source and commercial software companies for CRN and PCWeek. She received a silver award from the American Society of Business Publication Editors in 2005 for her profile on Linus Torvalds and edited and co-authored "Partnering With Microsoft," a book about Microsoft's channel published by CMP Publishing in 2004. Rooney graduated from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1997. In her off time, she enjoys scuba diving, sailing, sun worshipping, running, reading, surfing (the net) and hanging out with her family. She resides on the shores of Scituate, Massachusetts.

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RE: Red Hat, Novell win verdict in Linux patent infringement case
gorians Updated - 8th Sep
in resisting bogus shakedown about it is bank that website attacked from the site support from any soldier site to the light home page is great tactics
View in thread
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Judging by the recent MS/HTC ?agreement?
rikasa 1st May 2010
MS continues to take on Linux, albiet passively. Still; by avoiding
litigation, I have to concede such agreements may infact help the uptake
of Linux-based systems and for that I?m thankful... and yes; down with
flimsy software patent infringement claims against both Linux or
proprietary software.
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Amen! Software patents are scraping the bottom of the barrel
Ole Man 2nd May 2010
and the barrel already has holes in its bottom.
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RE: Red Hat, Novell win verdict in Linux patent infringement case
gorians Updated - 8th Sep
in resisting bogus shakedown about it is bank that website attacked from the site support from any soldier site to the light home page is great tactics
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One big reason...
Dave32265 2nd May 2010
MS avoids an all out patent war is IBM. It holds quite a few patents that MS licenses and cannot survive without them. Piss off IBM and they would tear MS a new one.
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Sooo. Give us some examples. Or are you blowing smoke!
andrej770 3rd May 2010
nt
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One big reason...amongst how many?
twaynesdomain 4th May 2010
Oh super clairvoyant one, dost thou know any other fine answers like that?
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The Black Knight, fat ladies, and curtain calls
Yagotta B. Kidding 2nd May 2010
Novell recently celebrated the end of a copyright infringement lawsuit brought against it by SCO several years ago.

Not yet. SCOX has motions before the Court to set aside the jury verdict and to have the Court assign the copyrights to them anyway. Failing those, they'll appeal to the Tenth District.
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100% correct!
Rick S._z Updated - 3rd May 2010
Yagotta, our opinions nearly always disagree- but your comment is totally on the money today. It's *NOT* over until the motions are settled, Appeals are denied (or completed, or the 10th circuit refuses to hear them). I remember a certain case, between Microsoft and a company named "Netscape". When it was handed back to the Bush?Ashcroft DOJ for a "Final Judgement remedy", many States saw the so-called remedy to be so manifestly ineffective that they ATTEMPTED to Withdraw from the combined suit. But they were not allowed to do so.

Anyway, back to this case. (The same District Appeals Court would be involved, so that bit of history is relevant.):

Although there's no EVIDENCE to prove that large amounts of hidden Microsoft Money, above and beyond the $10M license payment, fund the continuing existence of Caldera/SCOX, it's really difficult to explain why the company has "attracted" sufficient investment to stay alive this long. Only an IDIOT would fail to suspect the support of Microsoft's war-chest of cash, in one way or another.

Perhaps such evidence is forthcoming, presented from a victimized Linux company as PLAINTIFF, in some future case. A lot of people say that they expect IBM to happily spend lots of cash, cash which they won't be able to recover via Court-awarded damages, in order to make a frightening example out of SCOX and it's executives (both current and former) -- sending a message to anyone else who might want to try this BS in the future. But there's no movement in this area yet, and it might never get pursued.
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Expected results .....
wackoae 2nd May 2010
The patent trolls were trying to assert a patent on features that Linux (actually KDE, GNOME, and pretty much all other open source window managers) had years before they submitted the patent.

It is kind of hard to give credit to somebody who patented somebody else's work years after the "innovation" was in use.
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RE: Red Hat, Novell win verdict in Linux patent infringement case
Mr. Tinker 3rd May 2010
Dave32265,
First, IBM is one of MS's biggest users of Windows;
Second, this thread is about Red Hat, and Novell.
Can "we" keep on subject please?
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Not that far off.
flhtc 3rd May 2010
As I read it. The subject is about software patent infringement litigation, and two companies who've won.

In the early days, M.S. was one of the largest opponents to software patents. That's because, at the time they didn't have very many. The tide has turned, and if it weren't for IBM and a few others, I bet they'd love pull out the patent trolls and $haft Linux. IBM was dumb for not buying Bill's OS outright when they had the chance, I don't think they're still that dumb... I could be wrong.

The last statement in the article is "...anyone else want to take on Linux" Sounds to me like this opens things up a bit... No?
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IBM does not use MS software
sysop-dr 3rd May 2010
Um, at IBM you have to have a senior vice presedents permission to use anything from Microsoft. They are using Linux only for desktop and development and they have NO Microsoft servers except for lab testing.
IBM is no longer a major user of Microsoft software.
Do a search, you will find it.
0 Votes
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Not True
DXVictor 3rd May 2010
In IBM, Windows XP is by far the dominant
desktop OS and Windows Servers are everywhere.
Employees who receive new notebooks are
receiving them with the IBM standard platform
which is XP. IBM has a huge internal Microsoft
Technology Group and builds Microsoft
Technology-based solutions for any customer
that asks for one. There are even widely used
financial applications deployed world-wide
based on .NET. Despite the grumbling of
management, these applications flourish. While
it seems logical that IBM would stop deploying
MS Office, it just ain't happening. Office is
everywhere and Symphony is the ugly stepchild
nobody wants.
0 Votes
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Not true . . .
chillyd1@... 3rd May 2010
My IBM-issued Thinkpad came with Windows XP installed & Office viewers . . . even though it had Symphony installed. IBM is planning on rolling out bunches of M$ servers on their State of Georgia account.
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Not True....
flexing 4th May 2010
My IBM provided laptop has XP and MS Office. Not sure what you are talking about.....
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RE: Red Hat, Novell win verdict in Linux patent infringement case
Asset Detective 3rd May 2010
This would be another good example to share with your asset management teams, and consider mentioning during IT dept meetings for awareness. For my self I relay this type of information for staff training sessions since we're dealing with sware compliancy daily.
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Windows desktops scarce at IBM
Alganon 3rd May 2010
There was a news item over three years ago about how IBM were swinging their Enterprise desktops over to Linux. Don't think there are many Windows desktops there. Don't forget IBM has based "Symphony" on Openoffice.org suite and is pushing it hard. Bit hard to do that if you are not using your own product.
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Scarce? Not really
DXVictor 3rd May 2010
Inside IBM you will find mostly Windows XP on
desktops. Linux servers are very common as are
AIX. But Windows servers are still very much
present. IBM once thought they could rollout a
linux desktop to the masses of IBMers, but
intense user resistance could not be overcome.
I'm sure there's still a few execs that think
it might happen. Symphony is doing ok but is
not getting much respect. There are just an
endless stream of complaints about compatibility with MS products which is what
most customers use. Pressure is building from
the rank-and-file for Windows 7.
0 Votes
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I Remember When...
prwexler@... 3rd May 2010
...software could not be patented. What happened to those days?

-Peter Ronald Wexler
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RE: Red Hat, Novell win verdict in Linux patent infringement case
mrgoose 3rd May 2010
Excellent!
0 Votes
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Time to end software patents...
navigator@... 3rd May 2010
The issuing of patents for software has resulted in a monumental abuse of the U.S. Patent system. IP Innovation was a "patent troll" that used dubious software patents as a basis for engaging in law suits against both Red Hat and Novell. The objective of IP Innovation (what a misnomer) was to extract money from Red Hat and Novell by claiming infringement of some worthless software patent they were holding. While I am pleased with the verdict handed down by the jury, the bigger problem is software patents, which have to go or there will be no end to this kind of activity.
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Not True?
twaynesdomain 4th May 2010
The reality of the situation is that IBM doesn't "want" to use MS-ware, but unfortunately it fulfills their "need" for getting jobs done and with support included in the contracts.
As great as Linux flavors are, and there are some great ones, Linux isn't the turnkey solution that MS-ware is.
Linux cost a company a lot more in training and in maintenance/installation management over time than MS, which already handles that for them. Even as a simple SB user, I cannot fully dispense with MS-ware because it's the ONLY solution that gives me ALL the features and functions I want right out of the box. With Linux I'd be forced to either buy some new hardware/softawre packages that Linux can handle, and hope it's not borked or overly limited in features.
Until/unless I decide I want to write Linux code I'm stuck with MS for an OS and two other, non-MS applications that are not Linux supported and there are no plans to support them afaik.

Linux just isn't "there" yet. Maybe it will be someday, but that won't be tomorrow. I simply cannot afford it.
0 Votes
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RE: Red Hat, Novell win verdict in Linux patent infringement case
efsane Updated - 25th Apr 2011
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