A New Twist on Southern "Hospitality"

Hot on the heals of the recent Caesar salad-related intellectual property tussle here in NYC comes a lawsuit filed in Federal District Court in Marshall, Texas by recently christened Texas-based company Online Reservations LLC. They claim that OpenTable, Zagat and others are infringing on their patent for an "Internet Based Computer Reservation Booking System" and are seeking to prevent the Open Table, et al, from continuing to book online reservations. Not surprisingly, they're also looking for major league damages.

The suit was filed on behalf of James W. Rose and Theodore Chen, two California-based patent attorneys. Given rumors of OpenTable's interest in taking their business public this can't be welcome news. Add this one to the list of interesting law suits to follow in the coming months.