Linux Patent Infringement Lawsuit Filed Against Red Hat/Novell

walterbyrd writes "Just months after the last nail in SCO's case, and on the same day as Red Hat's brave words about patent intimidation, a company filed the first patent suit against the Linux operating system. IP Innovation LLC filed the claim against Red Hat and Novell over U.S. Patent No. 5,072,412. PJ points out there is prior art here: 'You might recall the patent was used in litigation against Apple in April 2007, and Beta News reported at the time that it's a 1991 Xerox PARC patent. But Ars Technica provided the detail that it references earlier patents going back to 1984.'"

Comments

Extra! Extra! Read all about it

[mad zambian]

at Groklaw.
As usual ,PJ sets it out cleanly and succinctly.
SCO II has arrived.

headline makes my head asplode

[tomstdenis]

This is a suit against distributors and/or the X-org team. It has nothing to do with the Linux kernel. You could just as easily remove X11 from your system and still have a useful box (e.g. server).

That being said, these "IP warehouse" douchebags have got to fucking stop. How on earth did we do "$20 million" in damages to a company which didn't invest in the R&D, and doesn't sell products based on it. They probably acquired it for a couple million (joke).

That also being said, wtf. Not like multiple desktops/windows is a new X11 feature. Why sue now? I think there should be a statue of limitations on filing patent suits. Otherwise, this will just keep getting worse.