Billings taxes Novell with a novel patent-infringement claim

The topic of this article is the recent lawsuit between Novell, the network giant, and Roger Billings, a “small” inventor. Roger Billings, is conceivably the inventor of a distributed database computer system. Billings is currently suing Novell for $220 million, claiming its NetWare infringes on his patent, the “Functionally Structured Distributed Database Processing System” (US Patent No. 4,714,989). In addition, Billings insists Novell´s infringement was wilful, entitling him to attorney fees and an additional sum of up to three times the $220 million figure