District Court Judge Marsha Pechman dismissed the patent infringement lawsuit filed by billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen against AOL, Apple, eBay, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Yahoo and YouTube last August 2010. Judge Marsh Pechman said that Plaintiff has failed to identify the infringing products or devices with any specificity, she also added that ,”the Court and Defendants are left to guess what devices infringe on the four patents.”
Paul Allen’s lawsuit appealed that the 11 companies allegedly violated the four patents developed by Internal Research, a Silicon Valley research lab he himself founded in the year 1992.
Paul Allen and Bill Gates founded Microsoft in 1975. Paul Allen can file an amended complaint in Dec. 28, but must clarify in detail how the 11 companies have infringed on Interval’s patents.
“In amending the complaint, Plaintiff must identify which of Defendants’ products, devices, or schemes allegedly infringe on Plaintiff’s patents,” Pechman said. “Plaintiff should, where possible, set forth the specific Web sites that are at issue and identify the hardware and software with adequate detail for Defendants to know what portions of their business operations are in play in this litigation.”
