GraphOn, the Santa Cruz, CA software maker has filed a lawsuit against Juniper Networks, alleging infringement of three patents related to firewall technology.

The complaint, filed in US District Court in the Eastern District of Texas, claims the patents protect GraphOn's fundamental network security and firewall technologies.

GraphOn alleges Juniper infringes on the three patents with its Hardware Security Client and NetScreen, SSG and ISG series of firewall products.

The filing does not specify monetary damages, but asks for "adequate" payment to compensate for the alleged infringement, including interest, costs and disbursements.

Juniper could not be reached for comment.

GraphOn, a competitor of Citrix, makes software for feeding server-side applications to devices such as thin clients. The company inherited the patents through the 2005 acquisition of Network Engineering Software. ®