Google faces patent lawsuit over technology

The U.S. Northeastern University has filed a federal patent infringement lawsuit against Google over technology used in its core Web search system, media reported Monday.

The complaint was filed on Nov. 6 in Marshall, in the Eastern District of Texas -- the U.S. court with a history of decisions that are highly favorable to plaintiffs in patent cases -- but the case only came to light over the weekend.

The plaintiffs are Boston-based Northeastern University and Jarg Corp, a start-up founded by a Northeastern University professor that is the exclusive licensee of search technology patented in 1997, a year before Google was incorporated.

Michael Belanger, president and co-founder of Jarg, said in a phone interview that his company had become aware of the infringement several years ago, but lacked the resources to press its case until it found a law firm willing to fund the case on a contingency-fee basis. Northeastern then signed on.

The suit alleges that Google has never obtained a legal opinion on whether the company infringes on the '593 patent. It seeks a jury trial and an injunction against further infringement of the search patent, damages, royalty payments.

The case centers on U.S. patent No. 5,694,593, entitled "Distributed Computer Database System and Method," which was invented by Dr. Kenneth Baclawski, an associate professor in Northeastern's computer science department.

"While we have not been served, we are aware of the complaint and believe it to be without merit based upon our initial investigation," Google spokesman Jon Murchison said.

"We are just interested in a normal royalty if the case determines that ... Google is using the technology we developed," Belanger said.