Patent holding company targets Linux, files lawsuits against Red Hat and Novell

[Daniel ~]

Written by Daniel
Friday, 12 October 2007

Patent holding company targets Linux, files lawsuits against Red Hat and Novell
ARS Technica
By Ryan Paul | Published: October 12, 2007 - 08:42AM CT

Patent holding company IP Innovation has filed a patent infringement suit against Linux distributors Novell and Red Hat. The patent, which describes a "user interface with multiple workspaces for sharing display system objects," dates back to 1987 and originated in Xerox's PARC labs.... Front Page

[Gizmo]

Oy! What a mess!

[robbie]

What a crock!! NOW these guys come forward? What were they sitting waiting for a company or two to start really making money on it so they can go after them.

[Gizmo]

It is highly coincidental that two senior execs of this outfit recently came over from Microsoft:

In July 2007, Acacia Research Corporation announced that Jonathan Taub joined its Acacia Technologies group as Vice President. Mr. Taub joins Acacia from Microsoft, where he was Director, Strategic Alliances for the Mobile and Embedded Devices (MED) division.

...and...

Monday October 1, 6:01 am ET

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Acacia Research Corporation (NASDAQ:ACTG - News) announced today that its Acacia Technologies group, a leader in technology licensing, has named Brad Brunell as Senior Vice President.

Mr. Brunell joins Acacia from Microsoft, where during his 16 year career he held a number of management positions, including General Manager, Intellectual Property Licensing.

Hard experience in life has taught me that, although coincidence DOES happen, it is far less frequent than most people think.

More at Groklaw

[robbie]

If there is one thing that I learned from the election in 2000, if you can't beat um SUE!

[Favu]

AFAIK the Xerox PARC labs where the first to build a GUI as we know it today, but at that time software was considered to be a mathematical algorithm, and therefore not patentable ?