First Linux patent lawsuit filed against Red Hat and Novell

Well, it was bound to happen: Linux vendors Red Hat and Novell have been sued for patent infringement. Groklaw is reporting that on Tuesday, the two companies were sued by IP Innovation LLC and Technology Licensing Corp. for violating three patents having to do with windowing user interfaces.

The lawsuit represents the first test of what happens when open source collides with patents, and it's interesting for a couple reasons. First, notice that all the other Linux vendors are missing from the defendants list, most notably IBM. That could be because IBM has already licensed the patents in a different context. (In June, Apple settled a patent infringement lawsuit with the same plaintiffs over at least one of the patents involved here.)

And second, though the plaintiff's parent company has some former Microsoft execs among its executives, this suit doesn't seem to fit in with Steve Ballmer's most recent round of "Linux owes us money" bluster. Earlier this month, Ballmer told an audience in London that Red Hat Linux users "have an obligation to compensate us" -- presumably hoping to push Red Hat to join Novell in licensing Microsoft intellectual property for use in Linux.

Well, that patent deal doesn't seem to have kept Novell from joining Red Hat as a defendant in this case. Hardly seems like Novell is being rewarded for doing the Microsoft deal, does it?

Will the suit hold up? It's too soon to tell, especially with the U.S. Supreme Court's new standards for obviousness. Stay tuned.