Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder, suing Google, Facebook and more

A whopping eleven different major technology and business companies are being hit with a lawsuit by the Microsoft co-founder under allegations that they infringed and violated four different patents.

Other companies that have been targeted by Mr. Allen, as reported by Mashable and the Wall Street Journal, are YouTube, AOL, Netflix, Apple, eBay, OfficeMax, Office Depot and Staples. The suit has been filed to federal court in Seattle, Washington. During the huge Internet boom of the 1990's, Paul Allen was one of the leading people in innovation and helping develop technology so widely used today, which these eleven companies have been using for decades as standardized technology. It should also be noted, as through the Wall Street Journal, that Mr. Allen never developed the technology himself but rather funded and then patented all of it. A Google spokesman has already commented about the lawsuit, in which he said, "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." Other companies, such as Facebook and eBay are also going to viciously defend their companies. Each of the questioned patents, as seen in the Mashable article, are all very generalized in their purpose and can be argued that this entire lawsuit is fruitless. Regardless, the business of suing over copyright or patent infringement is booming, such as the huge lawsuit against RIM (of BlackBerry fame) that was in July of 2010 and earlier in 2006. Paul Allen's finger-pointing started with a research facility he funded 100 million dollars to during the 1990's where all of the patented technology was created. The lab originally resided in Palo Alto, California and was dubbed Interval Research Corp. before being completely shut down roughly around a decade ago. However, during its span of being open, Interval was given around 300 patents and hired 110 engineers, scientists and physicists. However, despite attacking these innovative companies, Paul Allen is not going after Microsoft or Amazon. People suspect it is because Allen is still a very big investor in Microsoft and Amazon is located in Allen's hometown of Seattle. Allen left Microsoft in 1983. Another interesting thing is that Paul Allen is also saying that Google, when first being researched and developed, credited Interval as an outside source of help. When asked about the lawsuit and this allegation, Google had no comment. Paul Allen is seeking damages with his huge lawsuit, but, there is no exact amount being said.