A federal judge has denied a motion filed by Novell to declare invalid a patent infringement charge that an inventor brought against the company. The ruling advances toward trial a 2-year-old, $220 million lawsuit that inventor Roger Billings and the International Academy of Science brought against Novell. The suit alleges that NetWare infringes on Billing's patented Functionally-Structured Distributed Data Processing System, which is said to be a key piece of client/server systems. [Computerworld 11/15/93, 8] Novell has hired a second law firm, Morrison & Foerster of San Francisco, to help its chief counsel, Hecker & Harriman of Los Angeles, defend the company against Billing's lawsuit for his 1987 patent. Novell says it has retained the second firm to better prepare for a trial, should the case go that far. [Informationweek 11/22/93, 10]