Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has filed far-reaching patent lawsuits against Google, Apple, Yahoo, Netflix, Facebook, AOL and eBay, among others, alleging the companies violated patents owned by his now-defunct idea lab Interval Research.
The four patents at issue allegedly cover basics of online commerce, including recommending products to a user based on what they are currently looking at, and allowing readers of a news story to see other stories based on the current one. Two other patents relate to showing other information on a web page, such as news updates or stock quotes.
The lawsuit also alleges that Interval Research was one of four funders of Sergey Brin and Larry Page’s research that eventually became Google. The suit includes a screenshot of a 1998 Google webpage, crediting Allen’s company.
Notably missing from the list of targets are Amazon.com and Microsoft, which Allen left in 1983. Allen made tens of billions from his Microsoft shares, and recently pledged to donate most of his estimated $13.5 billion fortune to charity. Allen also owns the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers.
Interval Licensing owns most of the 300 patents from Allen’s Interval Research, and the suit comes just a week after Oracle decided to sue Google for patent violations over the open source Java programming language in relation to Google’s mobile phone operating system Android.
The suit (.pdf) was filed Friday in the U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Photo: Paul Allen, July 2009 Nati Harnik/AP
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