Paul Allen patent troll
 

Meet Paul Allen the patent troll

His patents might give him the power to sue any company with a connection to the internet and maybe all mobile phone companies too.

Yeah I was surprised by that its not like he needs the money.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_troll

could be ego trip

A mate of mine worked on the octopus. Paul Allen told him his accountant said if he continued to spend at the rate he was it would take 120 years for him to spend it all. That was pre-GFC. After gfc his worth dropped dramatically and I guess he feels he needs to keep spending at the rate he was, so he needs a new revenue source. He could always try porn I hear that is going great guns

Maybe Sharia law does have a place in modern society after all.

Maybe I am wrong here, but it doesn't sound like he pulled an Acacia and just bought a bunch of patents then sued to make money in a shakedown with them. It sounds like his company owns a bunch of patents and these other companies have used his ideas to make money.

I guess we will find out just how much there is to this story.

Here is more from the suit:
The 15-page complaint singled out Google for special treatment, saying that Interval Research provided both funding and assistance to the then-fledgling search firm in 1998, the year founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin incorporated the company.

Included with the complaint was a 1998 screenshot of Google's "About" page that showed Interval Research credited as one of four sources of research funding, and one of two outside collaborators.

It sounds like maybe he feels like he is owed a nice chunk of that Google money. Also, if Google used technology that he supplied then and didn't pay him properly for it, he might have a case.

Hit him with a brick, lift up his skirt, and take pictures of his panties.

I think Microsoft should be included in this lawsuit but maybe they won't hold up in court because he never actively tried to protect these patents in the past 10 years until now

He supplied google with technology? Give me a break sounds more like a desperate ploy by a man who has more dollars than sense.