OpenConnect Systems Inc, purveyor of the OC://WebConnect pro web- to-host connectivity tool has sued Attachmate Corp for patent infringement over a core piece of its technology. OpenConnect was awarded the patent in May 1998 that, according to president and chief executive Stephen Clark, covers the maintenance of persistent sessions between a browser and a mainframe. Clark says the company is in discussions with numerous other companies about licensing its technology – and thus avoiding litigation – and it expects to announce licensing deals with some of those companies in coming months. This is the first suit the company has filed since it was awarded the patent. It was filed in US District Court in Sherman, Texas, close to the company’s Dallas headquarters. Attachmate was unaware of the announcement when we first called and didn’t get back to us by press time. Separately, OpenConnect announced OC://WebConnect management server that provides centralized, real time monitoring on a single console, automatic server redundancy, server recovery, server load balancing and transparent host access for users.