“Billionaire Paul Allen today renewed his effort to sue Apple, Google, Facebook, eBay, AOL and other companies for patent infringement,” Brier Dudley reports for The Seattle Times.
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“Allen’s case was rejected on Dec. 10 by a federal judge in Seattle who said it was too vague. U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman told Allen he had until Dec. 28 to file an amended suit,” Dudley reports. “Just meeting the deadline, Allen filed an expanded version of the original suit with more details of how the companies allegedly infringed. The filing also includes 40 exhibits, many of which are screenshots of Web sites with modules highlighted.”
Dudley reports, “Allen’s suit alleges that his patents cover, among other things, systems that automatically call up and display related content… For instance, when viewing a product on Apple’s iTunes store, the store automatically suggests related content that may be of interest. The suit filed today argues that this infringes on at least 20 claims made by a patent Allen holds.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Dude oughta be suing his dentist.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Judge Bork” and “Lynn W.” for the heads up.]
@qka
“Lighten Up Francis”
Chemotherapy can be bad for the teeth. Is he still in a chemo regimen?
Can we sue Paul Allen for inflicting Microsoft on us?
…and I like the “Lighten up, Francis” reference…Sgt. Hulka Lives!
@Ned
Why are you crying? huh? … because of the chocolate bunny? oh, because MDN made a comment on your buddy? OK… Go cry now…I thought it was for the chocolate bunny… we are still far from Easter you know…
There’s no excuse for a billionaire to look like a shit eating rodent. Then again, maybe that’s exactly what he is.
@Ned
Just how does one produce a “reasoned take” on something (Allen’s lawsuit) that is so insanely unreasonable.
More and more I find myself siding with those who say there shouldn’t be software patents.
I’m also thinking the entire legal conceit behind intellectual property needs to be restructured so that intellectual property is treated just like “real” property. No special rights, privileges, exemptions or exceptions in the way IP is treated.
Who knows… if we did that we might start to see software come with warranties and guarantees, instead of those ridiculous, “buyer beware,” anti-consumer rights EULA seals.
Software patents is a bad idea. It really hampers competition.