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1992-07-27
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Novell Corrects Recent Wire Story on Patent Suit
Self-Described Scientist Drops Primary Claim of Direct Infringement
Against Novell
PROVO, Utah -- July 21, 1992 -- Contrary to a recent Dow Jones Newswire
story regarding a patent suit filed against Novell by a Roger Billings and
his non-profit Missouri Corporation, American Academy of Science (AAS),
Novell announced today it has not lost in recent court actions. In fact,
recent actions have been favorable to Novell, resulting in Billings
significantly narrowing his patent infringement claims against the
company.
The basis for the incorrect patent story was a press release issued by
Billings that only selectively referenced actions taken July 9 by the
Federal District Court for the Northern District of California. In
deciding whether the case will be transferred to Salt Lake City, or remain
in San Francisco, the court ruled the case could stay in California if AAS
dropped all of its claims that Novell directly infringed on the contested
Billings' patent. To keep the case from being moved to Utah, AAS waived
all of its claims of direct infringement against Novell.
Billings purports that his patent covers a "functionally structured
distributed data processing system." It is Novell's position that the
system described by the patent was established long before the patent was
filed. Novell considers the Billings patent to be invalid and
unenforceable. Recent Billings assertions also refer to some 200 other
companies beyond Novell that he suspects of enabling computer users to
infringe on the Billings' patent.
Novell and its patent counsel reiterated statements they made in December
1991 when Novell first brought suit to have the Billings patent declared
invalid. "After a review of the Billings assertions, Novell has concluded
that his claims are totally without merit and that the patent was
fraudulently obtained," said Gary Hecker, of Hecker and Harriman, a Los
Angeles based patent firm and lead litigation counsel for Novell. The
case is in its very early stages. No trial date has been set.
Billings is basing his claims on US Patent No. 4,714,989 issued in
December 1987 for a data processing system with user stations, a data
center and telephone switching network. Billings alleges that he assigned
the patent to AAS as a charitable donation, but has retained rights to a
portion of any earnings.
Billings has a history of making patent claims. He has received several
mentions in British newspapers. A June 23, 1991 Sunday London Times
article discussed a Billings-invented water-powered car, and mentioned
that he claims credit for the double-sided floppy computer disc. In
commenting on his water-powered car to a skeptical Times Billings is
quoted as saying, "If I am fooling myself, the patents will not be
terribly valuable, but I would rather have patents than credibility at
this point."
Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) is an operating system software company, the
developer of network services, specialized and general purpose operating
system software products including NetWare and DR DOS. Novell's NetWare
network computing products manage and control the sharing of services,
data and applications among computer workgroups, departmental networks and
business-wide information systems.