Paul Allen, a Microsoft founder, suing Apple, Google, Yahoo, etc -- but not Microsoft

"Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has filed far-reaching patent lawsuits against Google, Apple, Yahoo, Netflix, Facebook, AOL and eBay, among others, alleging the companies violated patents owned by his now-defunct idea lab Interval Research.

The four patents at issue allegedly cover basics of online commerce, including recommending products to a user based on what they are currently looking at, and allowing readers of a news story to see other stories based on the current one. Two other patents relate to showing other information on a web page, such as news updates or stock quotes."

According to the article in the Wall Street Journal, also named in the suit are: Office Depot Inc., OfficeMax Inc., Staples Inc. and Google's YouTube

Allen is not suing Microsoft over the same issues that he's suing others for. Selective vision. AOL should just hand him the keys and let him deal with their mess, they're not going to be long for the world at the rate their user base is shrinking.

What I really hate, aside from the ability to patent software ideas, is the fact that they don't have to be implemented. A lot of people argue that you should be able to copyright software concepts and implementations, but not patent them. I think that's a lot more realistic.

There was a great comment in the Wired comments: "We are told the great American pastime is Baseball. Clearly it is litigation."

I guess I won't be returning to the Experience Music Project or the Science Fiction Hall of Fame the next time I'm in Seattle.

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/08/paul-allen-patent-lawsuit/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703294904575385241453119382.html

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/08/27/203248/Paul-Allen-Files-Patent-Suit-Against-Apple-Google-Yahoo-Others