Paul Allen’s lawsuit should stay on hold, say Apple and Google

15 years ago

“Paul G. Allen’s claims that 11 companies including Google Inc. and Apple Inc. infringed his business’s online-shopping technology should remain on hold while the U.S. government reviews the quality of its patents, the defendants said in a court filing,” Susan Decker reports for Bloomberg.

“U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman in Seattle ordered on June 16 that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office be given time to evaluate whether the four patents cover novel inventions, a decision that Allen’s Interval Licensing LLC has asked to be reconsidered,” Decker reports. “The defendants, which also include EBay Inc., Facebook Inc. and Netflix Inc., said yesterday that the judge’s decision ‘was correct and based on a reasoned analysis.'”

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Decker reports, “In granting the request to put the case on hold, the judge, who has yet to rule on Interval’s request, said the agency review could “reshape” the patents. The patents, which mainly cover common electronic-commerce applications for displaying and categorizing product information, were obtained from a defunct computer-science and communications research business Microsoft co-founder Allen and David Liddle formed in 1992. Allen, 58, controls Seattle-based Interval, a patent- licensing company that is seeking unspecified cash compensation and a court order to block further use of the inventions.”