Linux supplier Red Hat has been hit with a patent lawsuit arising from its acquisition of open source middleware firm JBoss last month.
Red Hat bought JBoss in a deal worth £187m, plus an extra £38m if future sales targets are met.
Business transaction software firm FireStar has filed a lawsuit in the East Texas District Court claiming that JBoss’s Hibernate 3.0 software infringed its patent for linking an object oriented software application with a relational database.
Papers filed with the court reveal that FireStar wrote to JBoss on 26 May warning it that marketing, distribution and support for the software would breach its patents. Red Hat announced its acquisition of JBoss on 5 June.
FireStar is seeking a jury trial in a move that could lead to a protracted legal battle.
