Northeast University and knowledge application company Jarg say
they are suing Google in the Eastern District of Texas over US
patent number 5,694,593. The patent is for a 'a distributed
computer database system and method' and was filed in 1994. Google
was incorporated in 1998.
The patent describes a search technique whereby many systems are
searched by one computer. "A query from a user is transmitted to
the front end computer which forwards the query to one of the
computer nodes, termed the home node, of the search engine," the
patent said. "The home node fragments the query and hashes the
fragments of query to create an index by which the hashed query
fragments are transmitted to one or more nodes on the network."
"Each node on the network which receives a hashed fragment uses
the fragment of the query to perform a search on its respective
database. The results of the searches of the local databases are
then gathered by the home node," it said.
Google told reporters in the US that it believed that the claim
was without merit. The company is famously tight-lipped about how
its search technology works.
Patent suits are often filed by companies which only exist to
sue bigger firms over intellectual property, but Jarg does have an
existing business in technology for storing and retrieving
information in complex situations, such as life sciences, which
demand vast amounts of data.
It was founded by Michael Belanger and the inventor of the
technology, Northeast University computer science professor Ken
Baclawski.
Belanger told Reuters that it could not afford to take the case
against Google until it found a law firm willing to take the case
on a no-win, no-fee basis.
Belanger said that the firm was not seeking to stop Google doing
business, but it just wanted to be paid for technology it believes
it owns.
"We are just interested in a normal royalty if the case
determines that ... Google is using the technology we developed,"
Belanger said, according to Reuters.
