Paul Allen revises patent suit against 11 tech firms

From CNET News.com: Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has refiled a lawsuit against several major technology companies over claims of patent infringement.

In his revised complaint filed yesterday, Allen alleges that 11 tech companies and retailers--Apple, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, YouTube, eBay, Netflix, OfficeMax, Office Depot, and Staples--are violating patents granted to him when he headed Interval Research, a small R&D firm that he started in 1992 and ran until it went out of business in 2000.

Allen initially filed the suit in August in U.S. District Court in Seattle. At the time, Allen's Interval Licensing company--which holds the patents of Interval Research--said in a press release that the "patents in the lawsuit cover fundamental web technologies first developed at Interval Research in the 1990s, which the company believes are being infringed by major e-commerce and web search companies."

The lawsuit was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman on December 13 on grounds that the charges were too vague. In her ruling, Pechman gave Allen until December 28 to revise the suit with the necessary specifics. Allen's legal team labeled the judge's ruling a "procedural issue" and said it would meet the deadline, which it did just in time.

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