Paul Allen sues tech giants over 'patent violations'

AdrianH

Active member
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11117587


The co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen, is suing several high-tech giants for infringing patents held by a firm he founded in the 1990s.

The legal action against Apple, Yahoo, Facebook, Google and eBay, as well as six other firms, asserts that web technologies first developed by Interval Licensing have been infringed.

The patents are key to how e-commerce and search websites worked, it says.

Google, Facebook and eBay immediately said they would fight the accusations.

Google, Facebook and eBay immediately said they would fight the accusations.

"This lawsuit against some of America's most innovative companies reflects an unfortunate trend of people trying to compete in the courtroom instead of the marketplace," a Google spokesman said in a statement.

"Innovation - not litigation - is the way to bring to market the kinds of products and services that benefit millions of people around the world."

A Facebook spokesman called the action "completely without merit"........................... (more)


 
 
Left it a tad late eh?

Great you can protect your products/ideas from theft not so great when you use the system to control the way other products work and to then leave it so late that you cause the most damage.
 
Left it a tad late eh?

Great you can protect your products/ideas from theft not so great when you use the system to control the way other products work and to then leave it so late that you cause the most damage.

That's the best way to grab as much cash as possible, good business tactics if you ask me, but bad for those companies in the firing line.
 
Maybe he just wants to teach the online giants a lesson. *shrugs*
Considering Facebook is going through a lawyer-happy phase itself right now, there's no sympathy for them from me! As for the others, well.... it's business. Unless we get that patent system rewrite that Forsaken talks about (which, unfortunately, probably won't happen ever), we're stuck with idly sitting by and watch all the companies spend chump change on something pretty insignificant to all parties involved.

Seems you can't type up a word or line of code without having some blood-craving lawsuit or cease-and-desist order breathing on the back of your neck.
 
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