!060394 Billings seeking $220 million from Novell Will Roger Billings pass Stac's $120 million victory (against Microsoft)? Roger Billings is suing Novell, claiming Novell's Netware infringes some server-based distributed networking technology he invented. Billings (or more accurately the investors funding Billings' lawsuit) is seeking about $220 million dollars from Novell. Billings has survived repeated challenges by Novell to get the case dismissed, and last summer Novell retained a second law firm to assist on the case, as well as to seek out many in the computer science world to supply relevant prior art. A week ago, on the 24th, Billings met with Novell at the US District Court in San Francisco to discuss settlement. Last year he settled with the Bank of America (who he had also sued) for $120,000 for their use of Novell. This has been an interesting case, as will its settlement or court decision. If Billings wins the $220 million, along with STAC's $120 million, the software world will have seen close to a half billion dollars in software patent infringement settlements, a juicy sum to attract many others to the game of software patent infringement lawsuits. Though to put some of this in perspective, in recent years, Silicon Valley companies have lost over $600 million due to lawsuits from shareholders upset with fluctuations and volatility in stock prices, as well as billions of dollars in losses due to price wars, mergers and acquisitions. Greg Aharonian Internet Patent News Service