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Paul Allen's Lawsuit Patents To Be Reexamined

Posted by timothy on from the well-lookie-here dept.

eldavojohn writes "Last year Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen filed suit against eleven tech companies citing patent infringement on four of his patents. Groklaw has followed up with some interesting documents that reveal three out of the four have already been granted a reexamination by the USPTO with the fourth still pending."

2 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. A real shame by Man+On+Pink+Corner · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Paul Allen has done a lot of great stuff (and some not so great stuff) for the Seattle area, but on the whole he's definitely made a positive contribution. Now, at a time in his life when he might have looked to the Gates Foundation or other global interests to occupy his time, he decided instead to buy up a bunch of bullshit software patents and go trolling.

    So fuck off, Paul. You could've made a difference, but you decided to enrich a gang of lawyers instead.

    1. Re:A real shame by Man+On+Pink+Corner · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So what's his angle? Why is someone with that kind of reputation stooping to patent trolling? Do you think that's what Allen wants to be remembered for?

      I don't disagree with you about his many positive contributions (and I believe I made that very clear), but this is like Bill Gates waking up one morning and deciding to go club seals with a video crew tagging along. Is it profitable? Not likely. Is it a good PR move? Of course not. Is it a masterstroke of respectable villainy, worthy of history's all-time great evil overlords? No. It just doesn't make any sense.

      For one thing, if I were that wealthy and didn't care about my legacy or public image, I'd get more serious about my evil-doing. I wouldn't fart around with a bunch of chickenshit patent suits. I'd build a vast island fortress in the desert and staff it with robotic underage hookers or something.

      Anything but engage in this sort of penny-ante legal lameness, which does nothing but tarnish my reputation among informed, technologically-literate people.