IBM has filed a civil suit against partner Micro Focus in federal district court in New York, alleging that the British software company had violated its partnership agreement and violated IBM’s patents in selling its “Micro Focus Web Services.”The suit, according to IBM’s initial complaint, centers on a “web service binding file” – a copyrighted software format that IBM said is used for mapping data. The company accuses UK-based Micro Focus of copying the file structure and several other features of the WSBIND format, in violation of IBM’s intellectual property rights.