Red Hat and Novell being Sued for Patent Infringement

Little known company IP Innovation is attempting to sue both Red Hat and Novell for patent infringement involving Linux. According to the firm, both Red Hat and Novell's Linux distributions violate patent number 5,072,412 for a "User Interface with Multiple Workspaces for Sharing Display System Objects" - a patent dating back to December 10th 1991 - as well as two other patents. The orginal statement is as follows:

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.

This is the first ever patent infringement litigation involving Linux.