Microsoft Co-founder Sues Apple, Google, AOL, Yahoo and Others

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft's co-founder Paul Allen has filed lawsuits against Google, YouTube, Yahoo, Apple, eBay, Facebook, AOL, Netflix, OfficeMax and Office Depot for patent infringement.

The lawsuit marks new terrain. He is aggressively going after companies, including many of Silicon Valley's biggest names, that he thinks are violating technology that was developed at his Interval Research Corp., a Palo Alto, Calif., lab and technology incubator he financed with about $100 million during the Internet bubble.
Click to expand...
 
Nice to see greed has no limits. When you have $14 Billion and you still need to Patent Troll.

If you look at the complaint the patents are typical patent troll fodder. Overly broad obvious ideas.

"Browser for navigating a body of information" with a specific use for browsing audio/visiual information....
 
Did anyone think Vulture Capital was in it for fun and games. Agree with the patent system or not, they wasted the effort if they don't consider actions like this.
 
Snowdog said:
Nice to see greed has no limits. When you have $14 Billion and you still need to Patent Troll.

If you look at the complaint the patents are typical patent troll fodder. Overly broad obvious ideas.

"Browser for navigating a body of information" with a specific use for browsing audio/visiual information....
Click to expand...

you say that because it's some one else patent, but I bet if it was yours you would have a army of lawyers backing you up. Doesn't matter is he has 14b or 100 billion in his account. If he patented something and they all used it with out paying, it's time to get the courts involved.
 
There are limits though. Like Monsanto patenting seeds that have been around since the beginning of human history. Or patenting the names of all stars. Lame.
 
Nokia said:
you say that because it's some one else patent, but I bet if it was yours you would have a army of lawyers backing you up. Doesn't matter is he has 14b or 100 billion in his account. If he patented something and they all used it with out paying, it's time to get the courts involved.
Click to expand...

No I say that because I read the original story and legal claim and the patents are typical patent trolling nonsense:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/intervallicensingcomplaint0827.pdf

I have nothing against patent that actually stem from extensive research like Fraunhofer that did thousand of hours of research into creating MP3 and a lot of other real inventions.

But generic idea patents are pure patent troll garbage that stifle real innovation.
 
Nokia said:
you say that because it's some one else patent, but I bet if it was yours you would have a army of lawyers backing you up. Doesn't matter is he has 14b or 100 billion in his account. If he patented something and they all used it with out paying, it's time to get the courts involved.
Click to expand...

The use of patents has become a joke and creating a number of broad patents in the hopes if being able to sue someone in the future is what it boils down to these days. One great way big companies trounce little companies is by the use of their overly broad patents.

"You have a nice program there, but it appears you're treading on one of our patents, so unless you work with us you might have problems."
 
Most of this patent garbage has gone too far. Patents should cover specific inventions and nothing more. Just because you apply a general idea before someone else should not give you authority over that concept. Most of these patents cover general concepts that can be applied in dozens of ways.

The problem with current patent litigation is that you can be sued for developing something entirely on your own, without even being aware of the patent, on a very general concept that, to many developers, should be considered common sense. That stifles innovation, which is the opposite of the purpose of a patent. The patent is to protect inventions so others can't come along and steal off your work.

Reading the suit, I love this title for the one patent: "Alerting users to items of current interest." I think Allen should patent "sucking a lot of ****," because that's clearly all he does.

If you ever walk into a store where the employees work on commission, 95% of the time they're going to recommend dozens of products that may be of interest to you. We couldn't buy a television at Best Buy without them offering a full surround sound system, Monster cables, and a line conditioner. So why can Allen patent that same concept simply because it's on the internet? It's not revolutionary by any means.
 
Do we think he's doing it for the money or doing it to strike patent sharing deals?
 
IRSmurf said:
Do we think he's doing it for the money or doing it to strike patent sharing deals?
Click to expand...

Patent sharing for what. He doesn't produce anything, the patents are what's left over from a dead company that was never intended to produce anything.

This is patent trolling for money in it's purest (evil) form.
 
How can he sue Apple? Apple doesn’t copy others, they are the source of every new and innovative idea over the past decade!

Just look at the ipod, nobody even thought to make an MP3 player before Apple.
Or the iphone, all the other so called smart phones are nothing but poorly made copies.


Oh, wait..... never mind......
 
Given that he's pulled in almost every major IT company and then some, maybe he is trying to make a statement on the current patent system ?
 
nutzo said:
How can he sue Apple? Apple doesn’t copy others, they are the source of every new and innovative idea over the past decade!

Just look at the ipod, nobody even thought to make an MP3 player before Apple.
Or the iphone, all the other so called smart phones are nothing but poorly made copies.


Oh, wait..... never mind......
Click to expand...

There were MP3 players long before the iPod....in fact, the RIAA sued to halt release of an MP3 player called the Rio by Diamond Multimedia. They were first to market. Lastly, trash from Apple is nothing special...

http://++++++++++++/25ep3gl
 
^He was being sarcastic.... I'm fairly sure of that.

Patent trolling.... everyone's doing it. Might as well join the fray. Effin Patents... These patent office guys probably have zero clue at to what they're signing to become official patents...
 
On July 17, 2001, United States Patent No. 6,263,507 (“the ’507 patent”) was duly and legally issued for an invention entitled “Browser for Use in Navigating a Body of Information, With Particular Application to Browsing Information Represented By Audiovisual Data.
Click to expand...

Attention Manager for Occupying the Peripheral Attention of a Person in the Vicinity of a Display Device.
Click to expand...

Alerting Users to Items of Current Interest.
Click to expand...

Might as well sue the entire internet :rolleyes:
 
Why don't we just make a patent called

'Ability to give proprietary property in a controlled environment for a certain amount of years'

And then sue the patent office.
 
Hey he's probably worried, what with the rate of inflation the way it is $14b will be lucky to buy a bag of crisps and a can of coke in 5 years.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
IF you hold a patent on something, you have to defend that patent or face consequences; i.e. losing it. Hence the Monster cables and Apple "patent" lawsuits of years past - just demonstration that companies are paying attention to their pantents.

Oh and patent trolling, too.
 
gaspah said:
Hey he's probably worried, what with the rate of inflation the way it is $14b will be lucky to buy a bag of crisps and a can of coke in 5 years.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
Click to expand...

Is he expecting to live that long?
 
You know what this sounds like they are getting back at the ones trying to screw everyone else. Remember amazon trying to it on social networking and Apple trying and so on. And apple trying everything else. Facebook Gets US Patent on Social Network News Feeds.
Microsoft can do anything they got the money and maybe this is the way they think will stop this BS.
Think about it they are the ones who started all this they can stop it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top