Microsoft’s “other” co-founder, Paul Allen, has had a extended string of business failures since leaving Microsoft. It’s really quite impressive. One of his most high profile ventures, back in the 90′s, was Interval Research, which was designed to be a pure research institute “done fair.” It was described as trying to replicate Xerox PARC, however that it would really commercialize the incredible thoughts. Of direction, as we’ve pointed outside for ages, thoughts are only a small part of innovation. Actual execution is the really dense part, and one body Interval was never able to do was do. After eight years and over $100 million of Allen’s money, the operation was <a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/articles/000424/1123220.shtml”>shut down</a> back in 2000. That was about the at the end we’d heard of Interval… until immediately.
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Since, while Interval was unable to really do, thanks to the wonders of the US Patent system, it was able to secure lots of patents, and immediately it looks like Paul Allen has gone complete on patent troll. He’s using those patents to <a href=”http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703294904575385241453119382.html” target=”_blank”>sue Google (and, separately, YouTube), Apple, AOL, eBay, Facebook, Netflix, Yahoo, Office Depot, OfficeMax and Staples</a> — you know, the companies that really did innovate and did do — for being successful where he failed. Of direction, Paul Allen has been tangentially <a href=”http://blogs.computerworld.com/node/3497″>related</a> to patent trolling operations in the past, so perhaps it was just a affair of age. Still, this is a attractive disgusting situation all encircling.
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The WSJ article about the lawsuits doesn’t mention the actual patents (why do so hardly any reporters really mark you to the useful info?), however they’re the following:
<ul>
<li><a href=”http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=IQEWAAAAEBAJ&dq=6,263,507″ target=”_blank”>6,263,507</a>: “Browser for employ in navigating a body of data, with particular application to browsing data represented by audio data.”
<li><a href=”http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=PHSpAAAAEBAJ&dq=6,034,652″ target=”_blank”>6,034,652 & 6,788,314</a> (really the same patent, involving continuations): “Attention manager for occupying the peripheral attention of a person in the vicinity of a exhibit device”
<li><a href=”http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=QncSAAAAEBAJ&dq=6,757,682″ target=”_blank”>6,757,682</a>: “Alerting users to items of contemporary interest”
</ul>
According to a report by Todd Bishop at Techflash, Interval may <a href=”http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2010/08/allen_sues_google_apple_facebook_others_over_interval_patents.html” target=”_blank”>just be getting started</a>: “This is the most recent step in a extended action,” he said in an email, “however it is not necessarily the end of the action.” What a sad, sad legacy Mr. Allen is leaving behind.
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