The news report I found was about prominent web sites on the Internet and companies being sued. The title is “Paul Allen sues Apple, Google over patents.” The date it was reported was August 27, 2010, the author was Tom Krazit, and the source was CNET news (http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20014938-265.html?tag=topStories1).
The article discusses how Paul Allen, one of the co-founders of Microsoft is suing Apple, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, eBay, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, and Staples over patent issues dealing with several Internet technologies such as fundamental web technologies first developed at Interval Research in the 1990s. Paul Allen believes his patents are being infringed upon by major e-commerce and web search companies. The only company not citied in the lawsuit is Microsoft, which is Allen’s former company he founded with Bill Gates. David Postman, a representative for Paul Allen claims that all companies were informed that Interval Research held "patents of interest. Interval Research was another company, now out of business, that Paul Allen ran.
The story caught my attention because of the implications it could have if Paul Allen wins the lawsuit. Facebook, Yahoo, eBay, Netflix, and especially Google, are dominant sites on the internet that everyone uses. People may question why Paul Allen has not filed a lawsuit against Microsoft, when the simple explanation is probably because either Microsoft has already paid him off, or because he is still good friends with Bill Gates. Paul Allen could possibly alter the way the internet is now if all of the sites have to change how they are designed and how they have developed their search engines.
Every time something like this appears it always makes me wonder, why now? If what Allen claims, that he filed licensing for patents in the 1990’s, why has it taken so long for him to finally file lawsuits on these companies. It appears to me that Allen is trying to cash in on patents he may have filed years ago because of his greed for money. He waited until each web site became a dominant force in its field on the internet to finally file a lawsuit.
Regardless of his intentions, if he legitimately filed the patents then he does have the law on his side, regardless of whether the web sites had knowledge of the patents or not. Companies have to research things like this before creating web sites. With that being said, I think the courts should look into how long Allen was aware of the companies using his patents. If Allen has had knowledge of this for years, he should not be awarded anything because he waited to capitalize on the opportunity until these web sites were nearing their prime.
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