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Microsoft cofounder sues Apple, Google, Facebook, more

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On August 27, 2010, 5:00 PM

Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen has essentially sued the Internet today, chasing after 11 massive IT companies for patent infringement. Allen has opened suit against Apple, Facebook, Google (and its subsidiary YouTube), AOL, eBay, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, and Yahoo, alleging that they use technology created by his firm in the 90s.

The four patents in question cover "obvious" features used by countless sites today. They mostly describe ways to present related information to consumers while they browse the Web. For instance, one patent allows a site to offer suggestions for items related to what a person is currently viewing. Another allows readers of an article to locate related posts.

Those are pretty broad descriptions, so there's no telling how successful the suit will be. Most of the defendants haven't responded, but a Google spokesperson has said the suit "reflects an unfortunate trend of people trying to compete in the courtroom instead of the marketplace." You can read the patents in full here: 6,263,507, 6,034,652, 6,788,314, 6,757,682.

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User Comments: 15

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  1. Hackemate?

  2. That's pathetic. Way to wait until a decade after it was copied...

  3. Doesn't any statute of limitations apply to anything, anymore?

  4. Maybe they're trying to gather funds for their next advertisement campaign, you know, for that thingy called Windows Phone Something...

  5. Good for them. If it was my idea I'd do the same. Funny how people cry about it when it's MS people doing the suing.

  6. Haha, and the patent links are via Google Patents.

  7. hello ...

    i think there is patent & 'patent' .... someone can't just go & fill tons of ideas they can't put forward themselves & later on tax others for using same for there are no other routes or of some similitudes ...

    it's like someone in the beginning go & fill a patent for human to breathe in & out oxygen, as no one would think of 'owning' this process in the first place, then tax all humans for they do so ...

    i think those delivering patents should have strict conditions applied. tomorrow i can go & fill a patent for an idea of an invention i just don't have anything material or knowledge to create & when the real genius get the job done, i'm in for some milking ....

    OK, i'm off filling patent for the following: time machine (oops! already taken), hyper-hd resolution, synthetic brain-powered computers ... LOL (Oops, do i have to pay anything also for saying some words !!?)

    cheers!

  8. LOL just LOL.

  9. I guess Microsoft wants to make up for all the suing against them over the past 5 years. You don't poke the bear people.

  10. I think he's just mad cause Bill Gates gets all the attention, and most of the money.

  11. I think he's just mad cause Bill Gates gets all the attention, and most of the money

    Yeah, I read "Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen" and immediately thought, "Paul Allen...oh yeah, I remember hearing about him once."

  12. I kind of hope he's doing this to prove how messed up the patent system is.

  13. ...and just below the original article, in a subtly passive-aggressive condemnation of Paul Allen's legal action, the Wall Street Journal included "Related Stories" and "Related Videos"...

  14. Guest said:

    I think he's just mad cause Bill Gates gets all the attention, and most of the money

    Yeah, I read "Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen" and immediately thought, "Paul Allen...oh yeah, I remember hearing about him once."

    oprah = stedman

    gates = allen

    he was just there to rub gates' feet at night

  15. No point in suing at the start...all you get is lawyers fees to pay. Let them make some money and settle for millions

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