Microsoft Co-Founder Sues 11 companies, including Apple

Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and owner of a patent licensing company Interval Licensing, has filed a suit against 11 companies, including Apple, over several patents related to Web search technologies and e-commerce.

Mr. Allen, 57, Friday through his firm Interval Licensing LLC filed suit in federal court in Seattle asserting the companies are using technology from his laboratory. Named in the suit, along with Apple and Google, are AOL Inc., eBay Inc., Facebook Inc., Netflix Inc., Office Depot Inc., OfficeMax Inc., Staples Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Google's YouTube subsidiary.

The suit doesn't name Microsoft, Amazon.com Inc. or other technology firms in Seattle where Mr. Allen is based. The suit doesn't estimate a damage amount.

There are 4 separate patents involved in the claim and they cover essential parts of the companies’ business. For instance, one of the patents allows showing related articles on the same page while another allows the website to suggest similar things to the ones that people are viewing at the moment. Seems like Mr. Allen’s patents are vast indeed!

Interval Licensing claim that they are just trying to protect their investments in innovation. This lawsuit marks yet another step in Allen’s all the more aggressive efforts to protect his intellectual property.

Paul Allen is one of the world’s richest people with more than $13 billion. He recently promised to give over half of his fortune to charity after he was called upon to do so by Bill Gates.