<A HREF="http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1397,2215395,00.asp">Google faces a federal patent infringement lawsuit</A> by Northeastern University over technology used in its core Web search system, according to legal papers filed last week. The complaint was filed on November 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 Northeastern University in Boston and Jarg, 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.