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The lawsuit was filed today in Seattle’s U.S. District Court. The Microsoft co-founder has always been mercurial, to say the least, but this is like a bolt out of the blue. 
The implications are staggering — especially considering that the lawsuit, according to news reports, says Allen’s Interval Licensing LLC provided initial research funding for Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, which “resulted in Google”. According to the complaint as described by news reports, Interval alleges that Google, Google’s YouTube unit, Apple, AOL, Facebook, Yahoo, eBay, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, and Staples all violated four of Interval’s patents issued between the years 2000 and 2004 related to Internet browser technology and the display of information for shopping, news, video and other online content. Interval Licensing was founded in 1992 by Allen and venture capitalist David Liddle. Interval Licensing asks for unspecified damages, and an injunction preventing the defendants from further infringement or “a royalty for post-judgment infringement”.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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If Paul is suing, he probably has a claim.
This is huge, if it sticks. All of us from “1.0″ waited, and waited, and waited for our patents. Many of which were legitimately conceived as original inventions – all of which, were piggy-backed upon by the likes of these giants. They got rich off our ingenuity – which no one should be-grudge them. Afterall, they did build fantastic companies. But in that landscape (yesterday, today, and tomorrow), timing is everything. If they didn’t have Allen’s tech at the exact moment they needed to excel, well, things would be quite different.
If this is true, I hope that Allen wins. Not because he’s any kind of “stand-up” guy, but because it was disastrous the way the USPTO treated all of our applications.
“original inventions”? Nothing is original, it’s all evolutionary. Everyone borrows from the person before them. Moreover, software and business patents are stifling innovation in this country, not protecting it. Start-ups don’t have a chance now that large players hold huge arsenals of patents built up through acquisitions. State Street was a disaster, Bilski was a disappointment, and we need to abolish software and business patents immediately for the good of the country.
Major dollars trading places here.
Oh man is Paul Allen gonna be rich!
WTF does Paul Allen need ANY MORE money for?
Wow, is this the first time a patent dispute ended up on Deadline?
The big guys have been engaging in patent battles recently. Facebook is trying to trademark “Face” and also alleged paid $40 million for some Friendster patents.
Hardly a scandal, though it might be a big deal. Patent infringement suits are a commonplace thing. A patent attorney I worked with once said, “You don’t know what you’ve patented until you take it to court.”
Can’t wait to read this complaint. Soooooo many patents were persued 1996 – 2003 and far fewer issued. Would be great to see this make it to a courtroom for a battle royale. On a side note seems to confirm that having the most cake remains an important part of American Business operations even after you own a chain of bakeries. Perhaps the winner can shave off a billion for a social media endowment. Perhaps pigs will fly this year too.
“What a revoltin’ development this is!”
Microsoft is suing other companies for stealing? That’s rich.
I know it’s been a while since this guy’s been relevant in the tech industry but wow, why come out of the woodwork now? Is he dieing or something?
There is something seriously wrong with Paul Allen. This is the same guy who bought the Seattle Seahawks and threatened to relocate if Washington did not build him a new stadium. So, even though Allen is a billionaire and could build thousands of new stadiums, the state bent over and did Allen’s bidding. Now everybody from Olympia to Spokane are being taxed to pay for Paul Allen’s digs.
And, like the rest of Microsoft, Allen believes he invented everything tech-y. I hope the judge makes him pay for this nonsense.
Well said. You don’t have a clue about the lawsuit or its merit, but well said.
maybe patent laws are due for another round of upgrades. i still cannot believe that amazon has a patent for ‘one click shopping.’ should someone be able to patent a business process? i don’t think this is what initial patent laws were for.
but if he provided money to google as incubation money, they need to pay up if they’ve violated their agreement.
Does Paul Allen not realize that any of these companies could have him “disappear”? Now let’s combine the power of them all together.
That’s a double-edged sword. Paul Allen isn’t exactly broke and has probably made a few business rivals disappear in his time, too. And he’s lightyears older than some of these guys he’s suing so chances are he knows how to bury bodies if he wants to.
The only people happy about this got to the lawsuit stage are the lawyers on both sides. They’re sitting in their offices figuring out how long they can draw this thing out to maximum the millions they’ll earn. Luckily there are very deep pockets on both sides. It’ll be interesting to see how long this suit lasts. Paul Allen is 57 but has had a couple of bouts of cancer. Business is a cruel world and the companies he’s suing could drag this thing out for a decade or more.
I’m a patent attorney, I have filed hundreds of them, most in search engine technology. I was bought out before our IPO for $558mm in 1999. The real kicker was the patent would have been beaten if challenged. The patent office grants all kinds of crazy wishes on things they do not understand. 99% of internet technology patents can be beaten in court if challenged.
Good luck Mr. Allen
Hundreds of lawyers across the country just “best” friend-ed Allen on facebook.
Remember how it all began. Microsoft was not the prime example of integrity in dealing with the original developers of the technology that led to the efficiency of PC’s.
We got a hint of what was going on when the US copyright office had to make an unusual statement that APPLE was misusing Copyright Law to keep developers out of the I-phone. Now we see an industry wide DRAGNET. These companies have been breaking laws like crazy and using intellectual laws for their own causes. Now the public knows who the actual Violators are. Pirates of Silicon Valley.