The first ever Linux lawsuit is ready to explode! The theoretical debates over open source software and the patent laws are ready now to be discussed also in court, as the most important Linux sellers, Novell Inc. and Red Hat Inc., have been sued for patent infringement.

IP Innovation represents a subsidiary company of the Californian company called Technology Licensing Corporation; IP Innovation has sued on Tuesday Novell Inc., as well Red Hat Inc., as it has claimed that the two important Linux selling companies’ products infringe the United States Patent No. 5,072,412 for a User Interface with Multiple Workspaces for Sharing Display System Objects, which was issued back on the 10^th of December 1991. IP Innovation has claimed that the companies’ products infringe also two other similar patents. The company that has filed the lawsuit against Novell Inc. and Red Hat Inc. is seeking damages as well as a permanent injunction prohibiting any further infringement.

IP Innovation represents a business unit of Acacia Technologies, which has licensed patents to a wide range of companies, such as Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Intel, General Electric, Samsung and others. It has revenue of about $46.8 million from the third quarter of 2006 through the second one of 2007, but what’s most important is that it has also some former Microsoft executives inside. Just days before filing this lawsuit Acacia has employed even more former Microsoft executives, which is a thing that many Linux fans already say that is significant.

However, IP Innovation is claiming that the two companies have infringed the patents in the Red Hat Linux system, the Novell SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server) and the Novell SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop). Although the battle has just begun, this case is likely to travel well beyond the particular case that involves Novell, Red Hat and IP Innovation.