July 18 (Bloomberg) -- International Business Machines Corp., Oracle Corp. and SAP AG were sued by a closely held company that accuses them of infringing its patents.

Implicit Networks Inc., based in Seattle, claims the three companies and Adobe Systems Inc. are violating two patents for computer-server software that performs faster security functions. The patents were issued from 1998 and 2001 applications.

The complaint, filed July 15 in federal court in Seattle, targets IBM's Websphere Application Server, Oracle's Application Server and BEA WebLogic Server, SAP's NetWeaver and Adobe's JRun and ColdFusion products. Implicit seeks a ``reasonably royalty'' and didn't specifically ask that sales of any products be halted.

Oracle, based in Redwood City, California, is the world's second-biggest software maker, behind Microsoft Corp. Armonk, New York-based IBM is third in software. SAP, based in Walldorf, Germany, is the world's biggest maker of business-management software, and San Jose, California-based Adobe is the biggest maker of design software.

SAP spokesman Andy Kendzie said lawyers are reviewing the complaint and the company has a policy not to comment on litigation. Adobe spokeswoman Eileen Foley and IBM spokesman Fred McNeese said their companies had no comment. Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger didn't respond to requests seeking comment.

In February, Implicit sued Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Intel Corp., Nvidia Corp., RealNetworks Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc. and closely held Raza Microelectronics Inc. over a different patent. The companies are scheduled to file responses to the complaint by Sept. 18, according to the court docket in Seattle.

The cases are Implicit Networks Inc. v. International Business Machines Corp., 08cv1080, and Implicit Networks Inc. v. Advance Micro Devices Inc., 08cv184, both U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington (Seattle).

To contact the reporter on this story: Susan Decker in Washington at sdecker1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 18, 2008 16:20 EDT