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12 Dec 2010 12:14

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Tech: Best news ever: Paul Allen’s patent troll lawsuits thrown out

  • whatThe patent-troll lawsuit Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen filed against every major technology company in the world failed in court on Friday. Good for everyone but Paul Allen.
  • whyHis company wasn’t specific about how the many companies he was suing violated the patents. They have until December 28 to refile to prove specific damages. source

27 Aug 2010 21:40

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Tech: Patent troll: Paul Allen is a jerk who hasn’t been relevant in 20 years

  • Why do patents exist? Apparently so a multi-billionaire can choose to be a jerk and sue the entire Internet over obvious ideas he isn’t even using. Paul Allen, who’s giving away most of his fortune to charity anyway, is the head of Interval Licensing, which appears to be a patent-trolling firm based around patents that an old company of his, Interval Research Corp., created in the ’90s but never used. Now he’s suing Google, Facebook, eBay, Apple, Yahoo, Netflix and Youtube over what seem to be obvious patents. Our patent system is pretty much the worst thing ever, it’s being used to screw people over on obvious technologies, and it’s getting worse. If you really thought these patents were so bad, Paul, why did you choose not to sue Microsoft, which you own a stake in, or Amazon? source