Washington — Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen on Friday, triggered a patent shot across the bow of several prominent technology companies, suing 11 major Web-based firms, including Apple, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, YouTube and eBay, charging them with infringing patents filed more than a decade ago, which he owns.
Google and Facebook reprimanded the lawsuit as “unfortunate” and “without merit.”
Allen filed the suit in Seattle federal court representing Interval Licensing LLC, which is part of Interval Research, the now defunct company established in 1992 by Allen and David Liddle. The patents in question are “fundamental to the ways that leading e-commerce and search companies operate today,” David Postman, a spokesman for Allen, said in a statement.
The suit has been brought by Interval Licensing, which is controlled by Allen.
The complaint, lodged Friday morning in a Seattle federal court, alleged that the above companies, as well as AOL, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, and Staples, are infringing patents he received for several Internet technologies while leading Interval Research, now out of business. The case was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, based in Seattle.
Interval owns nearly 300 patents in its portfolio; Friday’s case involves four.
Interval said in a press release that “the patents encompasses technologies developed at Interval Research in the 1990s, which the company said are now being infringed by major e-commerce and Web search companies.” AOL, Apple, Google and Yahoo were each accused with four claims of patent infringement, while Facebook was hit with one. The other eight companies were accused with two claims each.
David Postman, a spokesman for Allen, said: “This is the first time that patents associated to Interval Research’s work have been litigated.”
Four specific patents are being cited in the case, according to Interval’s release:
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No. 6,263,507, “Browser for Use in Navigating a Body of Information, With Particular Application to Browsing Information Represented By Audiovisual Data.”
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No. 6,034,652, “Attention Manager for Occupying the Peripheral Attention of a Person in the Vicinity of a Display Device.”
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No. 6,788,314, “Attention Manager for Occupying the Peripheral Attention of a Person in the Vicinity of a Display Device.”
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No. 6,757,682, “Alerting Users to Items of Current Interest.”
Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes told Reuters: “We believe this suit is completely without merit and we will fight it vigorously.”
According to the suit, Interval Research engaged more than 110 of the world’s leading scientists, physicists, and engineers and was at the vanguard in designing next-generation science and technology.
It also claims to have aided outside projects, including work done by Google founders Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page.
“Interval Research was an early, pioneering contributor to the development of the internet economy,” Postman said. “Interval has worked hard to bring its technologies to market through spinning off new companies, technology transfer arrangements, and sales of its patented technology.”
“This lawsuit is necessary to safeguard our investment in innovation,” Postman continued. “We are not asserting patents that other companies have filed, nor are we buying patents originally assigned to someone else. These are patents developed by and for Interval.”
Interestingly, the suit does not name Microsoft, which Allen co-founded with Bill Gates in 1975 but left in 1983, but has not played a prominent role at the company in years.
He has since invested in a number of ventures in both the technology and entertainment worlds. Allen currently heads a firm called Vulcan Inc. in Seattle to organize his business and promote his philanthropic activities. He is the founder and chairman of the board for the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, and he announced last month that a majority of his estate will be left to philanthropy. Microsoft did not reply to a request asking whether it had licensed some or all of the applicable patents from Allen’s firm.
Representatives for Apple and Google did not immediately return requests for comment.
Allen’s suit seeks unspecified damages, as well as injunctions that would deter the accused companies from continuing to use the patented technologies.
Earlier this year Forbes put Allen, 57, in the No. 37 spot on its world’s richest list, and estimated his net worth at $13.5 billion.
The story was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
A copy of the complaint follows below:
Paul Allen Interval Research patent lawsuit